Dancing With The Dragon
by stonedragon28
Summary: The Ministry requires another form of exercise besides Quidditch, and Dumbledore introdues a Muggle game, Dance Dance Revolution. Draco refuses to have anything to do with it until an argument with Ginny Weasley turns into a DDR challenge!
1. What the Hell is DDR?

A/N's - Hi! Um, this is a joint effort. Samwise-dragoneyes (that's me!) And ZiBl decided to write a fanfic together, and since we couldn't decide whose name to put it up under, we just made a joint name! Anyway, this is our first fanfic ever, and we are so excited! Flames are alright, if you really hate it that much, but nice reviews are better. (Hint hint, say no more) And with that, we're off!

A/N 2 – Okay, just a note: we started writing this before books 5 and 6. So… THEY DON'T EXIST!

Disclaimer: We are poor. J.K. owns all. Don't sue. Nuff said.

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon

By: Two insane idiots (samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl)

Chapter 1: What the hell is DDR?

* * *

_Crap! Why the hell do they always have to leave me out of their conversations?_ Ginny Weasley wondered to herself as she wandered along the Hogwarts Express, searching for an open compartment. She _had_ been sitting with the "Dream Team", but they kicked her out because they needed their "private time." Thus the reason Ginny was now wandering the aisles of the train, questing desperately for an open compartment.

_Though I suppose I should be used to it_, she thought to herself. They had been excluding her for years, always thinking her insufficient to be a real part in the fight against evil. But that, Ginny swore as she glanced into another full compartment, was all going to change this year. She had found in herself a new courage, a new boldness, during the last summer. No more of the shy little tag-along Weasley she once was. She was going to make herself known this year. Grinning at this thought, she opened the last door and found herself face-to-face with a platinum blonde gripping a knife.

If she hadn't been so shocked, she would have laughed- Draco Malfoy was cutting his hair! Holding a strand of hair so brilliant it was almost white in front of his aristocratic face, he was cross-eyed and his tongue stuck out slightly as he sliced.

"Malfoy?" she exclaimed in an understandably shocked tone. "What the hell are you doing?" Draco paused before the knife touched his hair and glared up at Ginny. _His eyes, they're like ice or a sudden storm... too bad they belong to a Malfoy._

"Nothing you need to know about, Weasel." He spat out his diminutive nickname for her family as if it were poison.

"Are you cutting your hair? With a knife? You retard. Here, let me do it for you." He looked at her, his normally expressionless face contorted in surprise.

"And why would I let you come within 10 feet of me? I'd have to wash myself about 500 times, and the filth would probably still stay on."

"You'll let me near you because you're going kill yourself like that, and then I'll get blamed. So just shut up and hand me the knife! It's not like I'm exactly jumping for joy either." Draco looked at her with a calculating gaze, then sullenly handed her the knife.

"If you mess up my hair, Weasel, I'll kill you."

"Whatever," Ginny replied as she began cutting. In a short while, Draco's cloud-white hair had been cut to a length suitable for spiking. It was as Ginny was slicing through the last silky strand that the unthinkable happened. In a word, Ron. He took one a glance at the scene in front of him: Ginny, on her knees, holding Draco Malfoy's hair. The knife was unfortunately obscured by Ginny's waves of auburn hair. Draco's expression was one of intense concentration, mistaken by a furious Ron as one of intense longing.

"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing with my sister?" Ginny sprang up like a startled doe and surprised everyone by fervently defending her actions, or at least, she would have, if the train had not decided at that exact moment to stop at Hogsmeade Station. Ginny was flung off her feet, directly into Draco's arms. He steadied her, holding her for a moment longer than necessary before seemingly coming to his senses and shoving her violently away.

"I know I'm sexy, Red. But honestly, even Pansy is less keen," Draco shot at her, his regular sarcastic smirk firmly in place. He stood up in one fluid motion, glancing over at Ron frantically trying to leap on him, restrained only by Hermione, as Harry was too busy standing with a shocked look on his face. "Don't flatter yourself, Weasel. Nothing in the world could make me lower myself that much." With one final smirk, he left the train, cloak swishing behind him.

Ginny took one look at Ron's livid face and followed Draco's example, leaving the compartment as fast as her legs could carry her. Newfound courage or no, everyone knew that when Ronald Weasley had _that_ look on his face, you'd better leave, and fast.

* * *

Draco looked over at the youngest Weasel and smiled. Good, she was in trouble with the Dream Team, or at least he guessed so, judging by the fact that she had "accidentally" sat as far away from them as she could get. 

"Drakie, you aren't paying attention to me. Didn't you miss me?" He rolled his eyes. Of course, Pansy the Desperate had managed to take the seat right next to him. Lord, he'd rather have a Weasley sitting there, or even The-Boy-Who-Just-Won't-Die. Thankfully, he was spared the torture of replying by Dumbledore tapping the side of his goblet to get attention. _Phew, even listening to that flea-bitten Muggle-loving fool is better than the mind-numbing boredom that is Pansy Parkinson._

"Students of Hogwarts, may I have your attention please? The Ministry has recently informed me that schools must now offer additional forms of exercise, since not every student can play Quidditch. And so, since our Muggle Studies Department also needs a little boost, I have decided to introduce a Muggle arcade dancing game known as Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR to fans."

At this point, Dumbledore was rudely interrupted by Dean Thomas, who had leapt up on his chair and shouted, "YES!" at the top of his lungs. Every single head in the Great Hall swiveled and looked at the Muggle-born boy currently doing a victory dance.

"Mr. Thomas," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. "Since you obviously understand DDR, would you care to explain it to your fellow students?" Dean grinned as he mock-bowed to the professor.

"I would be absolutely delighted, Headmaster." He then proceeded to step onto the table and unabashedly addressed his fellow students. "For starters, DDR is the best game in the world. In the game, there is a screen and two footpads." At this point, Dumbledore conjured up a DDR machine to help illustrate Dean's point. "Okay. Two people can play at once. One person stands on one pad, the other person stands on the other pad. The two people select a song from the play list and arrows will scroll up on the screen to four stationary arrows at the top: up, down, left, and right. When a left arrow scrolls up the screen and meets the stationary arrow at the top, you need to put your foot on the left arrow on the foot pad. You get scored from 'miss' to 'perfect' depending how will you hit the arrow. The arrows scroll by in time to the music, so basically, you're stepping to the beat of the song. The speed of the arrows scrolling by depends on the speed of the song and your difficulty level. There are five different levels: Beginner, Light, Standard, Heavy, and Oni. Must songs don't have Oni steps, so we shall discuss it no further.On Heavy, the hardest level, there will be more arrows at a time and they will fly by faster than with Standard, obviously. The object is to get the most arrows lined up perfectly, and whichever of the two people does that wins the challenge." Still grinning, Dean hopped off the table and slid back in his seat.

"Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for that lovely explanation. There will be two DDR machines in every common room, and one special machine for between-house challenges. The challenge machine will be placed in a particular room in the dungeons, the location of which your prefects will inform you shortly. Thank you. Please follow your prefects to your common rooms, and have a wonderful year at Hogwarts." With that, all the students got up and began walking towards their common rooms, chatting excitedly about the new game. _Hmmm_, Ginny thought, _this could be fun. Wonder if I could get Dean to give me lessons._ On the other side of the room, Draco's thoughts were the total opposite. _Who the hell would want to play that? Stupid Muggle games._

* * *

So what did you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Review and tell us, we need serious feedback! But if you don't that's cool and thanks for reading anyway! 


	2. Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

A/N from Samwise: Wow. We didn't expect so many reviews! You should have seen us, we were grinning like idiots the entire next day! Well, ZiBl and I are going to do separate author's notes this time, so to those of you who haven't played DDR, ever, I have but three things to say. 1) You poor, poor people. 2) Go to the biggest arcade in your town as soon as you can. There will probably be a DDR machine there. 3) You'll still be able to understand this fic. I promise all we'll do is include the names of DDR songs. Anyways, I'm going to turn it over to ZiBl. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

A/N from ZiBl: DAMN IT! This bloody computer chair keeps falling over! What? You want me to write an author's note? OK! Actually... I have author's note writing block. This is my first author's note, you see, and I don't know what to say. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! Hugs everyone who reviewed: I love you all! Keep reviewing, and we'll keep updating! (On a semi-normal basis) And now I'll shut up. Enjoy chapter 2!

* * *

Dancing with the Dragon

A fic by two insane idiots, a.k.a. samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl

Chapter Two: Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

* * *

It would seem that the entire Gryffindor common room was standing there staring at the DDR machines. Dean, the resident expert, stepped forward smiling.

"Anyone else know how to play?" he asked. Three hands were raised. One was of a cocky seventh year Ginny knew by sight only, a Muggle-born named Dane. The second was a timid first year who shyly introduced herself as April. The third was, surprisingly enough, Colin Creevey. "Well, alright then! Colin can come up here and we'll play an example game." Colin voiced his agreement to this suggestion and walked up to the machine, tripping twice on the way. Ginny noted this with a distinct quirk of amusement. _He's been spending way too much time with Neville lately._

When they were both positioned on the game pad, Dean turned on the machine, plugging it into the electrical outlet Dumbledore had installed and charmed to work especially for this purpose, and selected versus mode, allowing him and Colin to compete against each other. Colin and he chose different levels, as Colin was only a standard player, not up to Dean's heavy move. Placing the song play list on random, the contestants got ready to dance. The speakers below the screen began blaring a Japanese techno tune that was really quite catchy. Dean's feet were flashing so fast they appeared to be placed under a dancing hex, and Colin had no trouble stepping out his easier routine.

When the song ended, Dean turned and swept a dramatic bow to the wildly applauding crowd. "That was stage one!" he announced. "Would anyone else like to try for stage two?" Ginny stepped forward, volunteering herself. "All right Ginny! Anyone else?"

"I'll go," Dane responded.

"Alright. Ginny, step twice on the 'up' arrow to go to an easier level. Let's start you out on beginner mode. Dane, you know the drill." Dane smiled flippantly and tipped an invisible cap at Dean, then stepped onto the pad with the ease of much practice. Once they were set, Dane selected the song. It was a techno song with English words called 'Burning the Floor.' _Okay. I can do this._ Ginny thought to herself. And the dance began. Arrows flashed by as Ginny stepped out the easy arrow pattern. _This is too easy. I've got to try this on a higher level!_ She thought as the song ended, glancing at the screen to find a perfect combo.

"Wow, Gin! Are you sure you've never done this before?" Dean asked in amazement.

"That was my first time. Can I try it on the next level up?" she answered eagerly.

"Sure," said Dean. "Step on the down arrow twice to change it to a higher level." Ginny stepped twice on the back arrow and went to Light Mode, the second of the four normal difficulty levels. An hour later, the entire house had tried the game, with the exception of a few such as Neville, who swore he'd kill himself _and_ break the game as well, and the Dream Team, who muttered they had more important things to do. No one had taken to the game quite as naturally as Ginny had, but some showed talent. Dane had happily obliged them all with a freestyle performance to the DDR version of the classic children's song 'Witch Doctor.' Within seconds, he had the quickly growing crowd clapping along with him and chanting his nickname (Zidane!) as he performed such tricks as bending down and hitting the arrows with his hands as well as every other body part he possessed. Cheering with the rest, Ginny smiled to herself. _Someday..._she thought. _Someday, I'll be able to do that._

* * *

The Slytherins stood around the DDR machines, all of them wearing almost identical looks of disgust. All of them, that is, except for Blaise Zabini. He stood slightly in front of the crowd, staring in awe at the game.

"Blaise, what are you staring at? You seem to have forgotten that you are a Slytherin, S-L-Y-T-H-E-R-I-N, and you're looking at a Muggle game with something other than genuine revulsion." Draco asked in a tone that was the most freaked-out he could manage without damaging his reputation as an emotionless prat.

Blaise looked back at his spiky-haired best friend and replied, "I used to play this game all the time when I was younger, it helped my reflexes and hand-eye coordination. Not to mention, I was rather good at it. And what's with the haircut? I thought the old bastard told you to keep it long and slicked-back as usual." Old bastard meaning, of course, Lucius.

Draco smirked as he replied snidely, "Which is exactly why I cut it. Won't dear daddy be surprised?"

Blaise grinned grimly. "Excellent, Draco. Piss off a man who'd gladly kill you rather than look at you."

"He's still my father, so he can't kill me. Mum's stronger than him anyway, and she won't let him."

"Still running to Mommy, eh, Draco?" Blaise inquired viciously. Draco opened his mouth indignantly and was about to reply with some cutting remark (of course, if it had been anyone other than Blaise, he would have hexed them on the spot) when a high-pitched voice interrupted from behind.

"DRAKIE! Darling! It is soooo cold in here; can I borrow your cloak? Please please pleaaase?" _Oh God, _thought Draco. _Not Pansy, not now._ He turned to face the pug-faced girl, the cloak in question swishing elegantly behind him. It was a beautiful garment, made of pitch-black velvet on the outside and lush emerald green velvet inside. The clasp was in the shape of a dragon, made of sterling silver with emeralds for eyes. On Draco, the effect was stunning. On Pansy... Draco shuddered inwardly at the thought.

"Pansy, I'd let you borrow it, but I'd have to burn it afterwards." With that diss, he turned and swept up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Blaise stopped staring at the DDR machine long enough to realize where Draco was going, and with one last, longing look, followed. When they were safely in their room, Draco sighed desolately.

"She's so gross. I find myself wishing on a daily basis she hadn't been born."

"Clingy too," Blaise added. "A real shame Crabbe and Goyle are so attached to her, seeing as they decided to be her bodyguards instead of yours last year." Draco made a face as he pulled on his silk PJs.

"Like I miss them! Every second I spent with those two, a brain cell disappeared, never to return. But don't remind me," he snarled, flopping onto his bed. Blaise grinned and went downstairs to play some DDR.

* * *

Ginny awoke when a hand shook her slightly. She opened her eyes to find Sarah, one of her fellow sixth years, smiling cheerfully at her.

"Huh? Whaaa..?" Ginny asked groggily.

"I'm assuming you're trying to ask why I woke you up from a pleasant sleep?" Sarah asked. At Ginny's exhausted nod, she grinned and continued. "You fell asleep in History again." Alarmed now, Ginny rubbed her eyes and looked around. Sure enough, she was sitting in her desk in the now-empty History of Magic classroom.

"Huh. Guess class must've been more boring than ever. Thanks for waking me up." Ginny had fallen asleep extremely late last night, after pulling a serious DDR-playing marathon practically until she dropped. Yawning and stretching, she got up out of the chair and turned quickly to Sarah. "Did I miss lunch?" she asked sleepily.

"Always thinking about food," Sarah said, grinning. "No, you woke up just in time to go eat. Come on." She started walking out of the room, and Ginny followed, still in a semi-conscious daze. They quickly reached the hall and found seats at the crowded Gryffindor table, though it took some negotiating. Bored, Ginny scanned the room, and her eyes slammed into a pair of steel-gray ones. _Malfoy._ She thought to herself in disgust. But she couldn't help thinking that he looked awfully cute with his hair spiked like that. Quickly banishing such un-Weasleyish thoughts, she concentrated on her lunch, not noticing that Draco was still watching her.

* * *

"Whatcha looking at, Drakie?" Pansy simpered. He took his eyes off Ginny and looked at Pansy, groaning inwardly. _I almost prefer looking at Weasel,_ he thought disgustedly.

"Nothing that concerns you, Parkinson," he answered, and went back to his conversation with Blaise, who was choking down his turkey sandwich in a very un-Slytherin manner. When lunch ended, he quickly got up from the table in one fluid movement, and walked off eager to get a seat away from that horrid Pansy during transfiguration. He spotted Ginny getting up across the room, and he couldn't help but notice how the sun shone on her hair. _Her red Weasley hair,_ he reminded himself. Shaking his head to clear all thoughts of a certain redhead, he strode off toward the classroom. Two very boring classes and a delicious dinner later, Draco retired to the common room to work on his homework.

It was while he was writing a charms paper in his long, flowing script that the owl flew in. It was a gorgeous creature, jet black and easily recognizable as his fathers. Draco sighed and pulled the letter off the owl's leg, feeding it a bit of toast that Crabbe left lying on the table that morning as he did so. It hooted softly and quickly flew off. Draco looked around to make sure no one was watching, then opened the letter. Its contents were pretty much what you'd expect.

_Draco,_

_I am severely disappointed that you cut your hair,_

_as it was a sign of Malfoy pride. I will administer_

_your punishment when you come home for _

_Christmas, and I expect a letter informing me_

_of your reasons immediately._

_-Lucius_

Draco sighed and crumpled the letter. Getting up, he stalked over to the fireplace and violently threw the letter in, watching it burn with satisfaction. He then proceeded to the door in that wall that exited the common room.

"Hey Draco! Where the hell are you going?" Blaise called after him.

"To the kitchens, to get something to eat. I'll be back later." And with that, he left the room.

* * *

Ginny was doing her potions homework when Ron approached her, reluctantly backed by Harry.

"Ginny, we need to talk."

"About what?" She asked, at the same time thinking to herself,_ Oh crap. _

"What the hell were you doing alone in a train compartment with a Malfoy?"

"Oy, not that again. As I already told you about 50 million times, I was just deciding what hexes would be best to place on him when you arrived." _If he knew I was cutting Malfoy's hair, he'd kill me! And I bet Harry would help._

"I don't believe you. Now I'll ask you again, WHAT WERE DOING WITH THAT BLOODY PRAT?" Ginny sighed and stood up.

"I already told you, so SOD OFF. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the kitchens for a snack." With that, she stormed out. Ron and Harry looked after her, surprised at her outburst.

"Must be the famous Weasley temper." Harry muttered to himself.

"Shut up, Harry. Now come on, we haven't done our Defense against the Dark Arts homework. Hermione will have a nervy b if she finds out." said Ron.

Why can't they mind their own damn business? She thought crossly to herself as she stalked down the hall. She was so busy trying to remember the right wand movement to give Ron and Harry permanent warts; she wasn't watching where she was going and ran right into someone. A strong, muscular someone.

"Sorry." She muttered from her newfound position on the ground. Looking up, her eyes slammed straight into a pair of furious storm-gray eyes.

"Watch where you're going, Weasel." Draco sneered elegantly.

"Can't you come up with any better insults? I think you're losing your touch. And why should I watch where I'm going anyway? _You _ran into me!"

"A Malfoy would never be that klutzy. Malfoys are superior to everyone else in all things. Name anything, and I can do it better then you."

"Oh yeah?" Ginny snapped.

"At the risk of sounding like a 6-year-old, yeah."

"Well then, I challenge you to..." Ginny trailed off, quickly trying to think of a game Draco could never hope to beat her at. Suddenly, an idea dawned on her, and she grinned. "How about... A DDR competition?"

"That stupid Muggle game?" He asked incredulously. He was about to decline and save his reputation, when he realized that Ginny expected him to say no. That infuriated him beyond all belief. He surprised himself and Ginny by opening his mouth and growling. "You're on, Red. The day after the Christmas Hols end, we work this out on that stupid machine. If I win, you have to run through the Great Hall at lunch. Completely naked. And if the impossible happens and you win, I have to..." He trailed off, arching an elegant eyebrow in her direction. Ginny smiled.

"When I win, you have to run through the halls of the school screaming your love for me, disgusting as that is. Then, you have to ask me out. Very mushily, might I add. Of course, I'll gracefully decline, and you'll be horribly embarrassed. Deal?" Draco narrowed his eyes at her.

"It's a deal. Be ready to get your sorry ass kicked."

"You're the one who's getting his ass kicked." She smirked. Malfoy looked shocked.

"You stole my smirk!"

"Incredibly mature, Malfoy. I'll see you after the hols." She turned and walked away, her head held high.

"Your nose is already big enough without sticking it in the air, Weasel!" Draco called after her. She didn't even dignify him, a Malfoy, with a response. "She's going down." Draco muttered to himself, unaware that Ginny was muttering something very similar under her breath at the same time.


	3. Best Friends and Battles Lost

A/N from Samwise: Whee! Reviews! You guys are all uber-kickass and stuff! Yay! Oh, and by the way- I'm 15 now! Is anyone else young for their grade? Cause I am, I'm a sophomore! I'm going to turn it over to ZiBl. Oh yeah, one more thing- sorry it took so long, this is entirely my fault. Don't blame ZiBl, it's all me.

A.N From ZiBl: Actually, there's not gonna be an author's note from ZiBl this time, as she got herself grounded from the computer. On to the story!

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon

A FanFic by two Insane Idiots (a.k.a. samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl)

Chapter Three: Best Friends and Battles Lost

* * *

Ginny walked into the common room to find it empty except for Dane, who was dancing to "Max 300" on the DDR machine. He looked absolutely exhausted. His breathing was labored, and his face was drenched with sweat as well as screwed up in intense concentration. _No wonder_, Ginny thought as she looked at the screen. The arrows were flashing by on the screen so fast she could barely follow them.

"DAMN IT!" Dane yelled as the song abruptly ended, the screen flashing the word "failed" at him in hugeblue lettering.

"Uh... Dane? What do you think you're doing up? It's two in the morning and from what I hear, all the seventh-years have a huge test in History of Magic tomorrow!" Dane jumped, then rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. It's not like I care. And where have you been? You left the common room ages ago and you're just now getting back?"

The tell-tale Weasley blush spread across Ginny's face as she snapped, "None of your beeswax!" _He needn't know I just spent three hours in the library trying to find a hex to put Malfoy in the hospital wing for the next two weeks._ "We both oughtta go to bed. But, Dane, can I ask you a question first?"

"Sure," said the black-haired lad.

"Can you give me DDR lessons? I think this is something I could really be good at, and you're the best player I've ever seen, don't tell Dean that though!" she added hastily.

Dane grinned at the compliment. "Of course. I'm already helping someone else, a Japanese chick named Koharu who just moved here. You guys are about the same skill level, and you should get along. Lessons start at 9:00 and last until 10:00. Now get some sleep, you need your energy if you are to become..." he paused dramatically. "A DDR master!" With that, he swept up the boys staircase, leaving Ginny to stare at the machine and ponder the question that had been haunting her ever since she left the kitchens. _Why in the hell did Malfoy accept?_

* * *

There were still many students awake when Draco finally entered the common room, most Slytherins being insomniacs by nature. Blaise looked up as his regal gaze swept the room with its usual cold contemplation. _Not good! I can't practice here, there are too many people, not to mention I swore I'd never play that game from the moment I first saw it. Well, that only leaves me one more choice, then. I'll have to practice in the Inter-House Challenge Room, starting tomorrow night. Damn that Weasel for forcing me to do this! _

"Hey Draco, looks like that trip to the kitchens worsened your mood, rather than improving it." Blaise called out. Draco quickly stalked over to his best friend and sat down crossly.

"My life sucks," he complained, but quietly, as he wasn't supposed to show any emotion other than utter contempt for all non-Slytherins. Blaise had been Draco's best friend for years, though, and they actually trusted each other. Both of them had been raised to be emotionless always, and it was only around each other they were anything else. Still, there were some things Draco was definitely never going to tell Blaise, and his bet with Ginny Weasley was at the top of that very short list. "It's just my father, as usual. I hate being expected to be a Lucius clone. He thinks I should be all evil and unemotional, like him, but..." Draco's voice faded, and as expected, Blaise finished the sentence for him.

"But you're not like him, you're your own person. And even though you are a bastard on occasion, you're not evil. You just want to live your life the way you like it, not anyone else's way."

Draco nodded, accepting that Blaise was talking about himself as much as he was about Draco. "I'm sick of death; I don't dare get friendly with anyone remotely unacceptable. If I do, that sick bastard will murder them." Blaise looked at Draco, understanding reflected in his eyes. The past summer, Draco had found out a horrible secret, one that had been eating him from the inside out. Draco, you see, had a little brother. Well, he used to, until Orion had mysteriously disappeared the summer before Draco's first year. He'd been devastated and had wanted to remain home and aid in the search for his little brother, as they'd been best friends. He'd been forced to go, though, and heard nothing about Orion until last summer, when he'd "accidentally" eavesdropped on his parents' conversation...

* * *

Draco, walking in the hall by their room, heard voices, and immediately crouched down next to the door to listen.

"_That dratted boy's been getting too rebellious lately. We might have to do to him what we did to Orion when he started acting up," Lucius hissed. Draco leaned closer, clinging to the doorframe in shock. He'd always thought his brother was murdered, but now he knew who haddone it._

"_Lucius, please. He'll grow out of it, just like Orion would have if you hadn't been so rash. Don't make the same mistake twice, just give him time," Narcissa said passionately. _

_Lucius sighed. "Perhaps you're right. He hasthree monthsto prove himself better than that little disgrace to the Malfoy name he called a brother." Draco's eyes were wide as he ran silently down the heavily carpeted hallway to his room. It was them. It was them all along._

* * *

"If she hadn't stuck up for me, I'd be dead now." Draco muttered into his hands, where his face had been hidden for the past ten minutes. Blaise, after carefully checking that they were in the shadows and that no one was looking, patted his back in an 'It'll be all right' way. But suddenly both boys sat straight up, automatically assuming their normal expressionless faces as Pansy Parkinson's voice reached their ears.

Draco resisted the urge to clap his hands over his ears and run screaming to the boys' dormitories as he heard what Pansy was screeching. "Drakie dearest! Where are you? I haven't seen you all day and I missed you sooo much!" _Thank goodness the stupid bitch can't see me when I sit so far away from the fireplace, _Draco thought smugly to himself. "I'm off to bed, Blaise. Go distract Pansy for me." Blaise smiled grimly and followed orders, knowing that Draco would do the same for him the next time one of the members of his fan club decided they needed to have a five-hour chat with him. When Pansy was sufficiently occupied with the other tall and gorgeous Slytherin, Draco quietly slipped up the stairs.

As he changed into his silky dark green pajamas, his mind wandered back to the challenge he had gotten earlier that night. _I'll start practicing tomorrow night at 10:30, _was his last thought before his beautiful silver eyes closed and he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

The final arrows crossed the screen, with Koharu hitting them all and Ginny only missing one. "Very good, ladies!" Dane called as they stepped off the machine. "Remember, keep your feet off the middle! Let them rest on the arrows they were on last." Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, as that had to be the 20th time Dane had said that in the past half hour. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was already 10:05. "Same time tomorrow. Lesson's over. It's Dane dance time now!" Dane grinned to himself as he stepped onto the machine, leaving Ginny and Koharu to look helplessly at each other.

Koharu pointed at Dane and mouthed, "Obsessed!" and Ginny quickly grinned in agreement. Koharu smiled back and went off to bed wkith a yawn. Ginny looked around the almost empty common room restlessly. She was ready for more practice, not bed! Glancing around again, she decided to go to the Inter-House Challenge Room to practice. _No one else will be there at this time, and Dane's too busy trying to beat Max 300 to notice if I leave, _Ginny thought. Making up her mind, she slipped from the common room and started down the corridor.

Twenty minutes later, she arrived in the room. Looking around to assure herself that she was alone, she dropped her cloak, revealing her baby blue pajamas. They used to be soft and fuzzy, but by the time three of Ginny's cousins were done with them, they weren't exactly either. They were also quite thin, a fact Ginny noticed immediately as it was rather cold in the room with only the pajamas. But wearing a cloak would hamper her dancing, so Ginny stepped onto the machine without it. She was about to select single mode when a sound form the doorway startled her, and she whirled around to see who else was up practicing so late.

* * *

Draco entered the challenge room and found himself facing a pair of large brown eyes, which quickly lost their startled expression and gave way to anger

"What the hell are you doing here, Malfoy?" Ginny snapped. Draco responded in his usual cold, detached manner while taking off his jet-black cloak to reveal his warm flannel pajamas (he had decided to forego his usual silk as it was rather chilly in the practice room).

"I believe this room is open to anyone who wants to practice," he drawled, staring at her insolently.

"Oh, shut up," she growled. She was shivering in her too-thin pajamas, and he began to make a mental note to get her new ones before he remembered that he didn't like her. _Normally,_ _when one dislikes someone, one does not buy them expensive gifts. So what was up with that flash of sympathy, for a Weasley no less? _A cynical voice whispered inside Draco.

"Shut up, you," he muttered.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, Ferret Boy." He glared at her.

"Shut it, Red. Nice pajamas, by the way." She stiffened, and he noticed her eyeing his own warm pj's before turning back to the machine.

"Go away, Malfoy. I was practicing here first."

"You've been here longer than I have. Go practice in your own common room."

"All the machines in mine are in use," she said coldly, blatantly ignoring the fact that only one was actually being used. _But I'll be damned if I back down to a Malfoy, _she thought with a flash of fierce resolve. "You go practice in _your_ common room."

"Same situation," he replied tonelessly. Ginny snorted loudly, shaking her head.

"I seriously doubt that. Four Slytherins using a Muggle machine at one time? I don't think so."

"Are you calling me a liar?" Draco's voice had swiftly changed from cool and collected to dangerously soft, and his eyes blazed. So what if he was lying? No filthy Gryffindor should ever doubt the word of a member ofthe Malfoy family. _You're beginning to sound exactly like Lucius,_ his inner voice whispered.

His eyes widened, and he dropped his aggressive pose only to regain it two seconds later as Ginny replied with, "And what if I am?"

"Then you're one of the stupidest people I've ever met. No one crosses me and lives." Silence stretched out between the two, growing longer and longer as they continued to glare at each other. Finally, Ginny broke it with a long sigh.

"Whatever, Dragon-boy. Listen, neither of us is going anywhere, so we'll just have to practice together. Call it a..." she paused, searching for the right words. "a mini-challenge, with no stakes except bragging rights, of course." Draco thought about it for a minute, then nodded silently and stepped onto the machine.

"Know how to play?" she asked asa smirk- his smirk- crossed her lips.

"Yes," he said shortly, trying to get her to start so he could kick her butt. _Come on, you step on arrows. How hard could that be? _When they got to the level selector, Ginny chose Light mode proudly. Draco, not to be outdone, chose Light Mode as well, even though he'd never played before. Then the song selection came up.

"Choose," Ginny said curtly. Draco looked at the long list for a moment before selecting a song entitled "Speed Over Beethoven." _I've listened to him before; I can't believe people think he was a Muggle! There's no way a deaf guy could compose such beautiful music without magic. _That was unfortunately as far as he got in his thoughts before the opening notes of a techno version of Für Elise blasted through the speakers, and he had to begin stepping.

Ginny, having practiced this songquite a few times, stepped through the arrows easily, and even got a huge combo. Draco, on the other hand, was having a slightly harder time. _Okay, left, right, left, up, left, right - wait, no! Left AND right? Ahhh! How the hell are you supposed to do this?_

The song finally ended, and Draco stepped off the machine, glaring at Ginny, who was standing with her arms crossed and an extremely smug look on her face. "You may have won the battle, Red, but **_I_** will win the war." She grinned.

"That's the worst insult I've ever heard you say, Malfoy. What's the matter? Not used to having your ass kicked by s lowly Gryffindor? Well, get used to it."

His eyes narrowed to mere slits. "I'm going to make you regret the day you were born, Weasley." And with that, he strode past her, picked up his cloak, and stalked out of the room with as much dignity as he could muster. _That's it! Blaise is giving me lessons.

* * *

_


	4. Lessons and Red Purses

A.N.: Um... Hi everybody! We didn't take ages to update... :ahem:. Of course not. Sorry about it, we've had it all written out for quite some time, but dear ZiBl kept on forgetting to get the written copy to me so I could type it! Oh well, it's here now. Since we felt SO bad about being late as hell (our original plan was to update once a week AT LEAST, lol, you can see how that worked out), we're giving you double whammy- two chapters at once! Whee! Hope you like! Oh yeah- Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Disclaimer: J.K. owns Harry Potter, and the fabulously talented Rumiko Takahashi owns Inuyasha. We love them both.

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon 

A FanFic by: two insane idiots named samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl

Chapter 4: Lessons and Red Purses

* * *

As Ginny watched the last part of Draco's cloak swish around the corner, she couldn't help but grin. _The challenge is in the bag, to use one of Dad's Muggle expressions. I can't wait to see everyone's face when he asks me out in front of the entire school! Pansy Parkinson, Michael Corners (stupid git), Hermione, Harry, Ron-_ she stopped, and the smile was wiped off hr face.Ron. He'll kill Malfoy. For a moment, concern flitted across her face. Just as she was considering running after Malfoy and calling the whole thing off, an annoying tune began playing in her head. _'His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, his hair is as dark as a blackboard...' _Ginny's eyes narrowed,as an echo ofMalfoy's voice filled her ears. _"I don't think Potter liked your Valentine much!" _

"He deserves it," she muttered, and was turning back towards the DDR machine to get some more practice when the sound of soft footfalls stopped her. Looking into the corridor, she saw Mrs. Norris, thankfully looking the other way at the moment, but not for long. Sighing exasperatedly, she put on her cloak and left as quickly as she could. _I'll go see if Dane's still up._

* * *

"You want me to WHAT?" 

"The look on your face would be priceless if I wasn't serious. And you heard what I said, Blaise."

"And I still can't believe it. You made it abundantly clear that you despise all Muggle things, including the DDR machine, and now you want me to teach you?"

"Shut up, Blaise. I'll explain later." Glancing around the common room, Draco found that several people had noticed Blaise's raised voice and shocked expression and were now looking inquiringly at the chairs he and Blaise occupied near the fire. It was one of the Slytherin's unwritten codes- Never lose control of your emotions. Always be expressionless, and show no weakness. Blaise, like Draco, noted his housemates' interest, and his face quickly reverted back to its usual placidity. Draco pulled out a piece of parchment, scribbled something on it, and handed it to Blaise, usual smirk firmly in place.

"Lord, Zabini, don't have a hissy fit. Here's your homework." He looked around the common room for a moment, then, seeing his bag, picked it up and strode smoothly out of the common room. Blaise waited for the attention to drift away from him, then tucked Draco's parchment into his History of Magic book, glancing at it as he did so. It said, simply:

_Room of Requirement, 15 minutes._

Blaise smirked. That was Draco's way, secrecy and lies.

Fifteen minutes later, Blaise entered the room, sat down on one of the couches richly upholstered with black velvet, and stared at Draco.

"Explain."

"Where to start, where to start..." Draco muttered.

"Are you going to force me to be cliché and say 'at the beginning'?" Blaise snapped irritably.

"What's _your_ problem today?"

"After you left, the "Slytherin Quidditch Players Fan Club" decided I needed some cheering up before our big game on Sunday, so they showered me with praise on my, as they called it, 'legendary talent'. Pansy even tried to give me a little physical encouragement." Blaise shook his head in disgust. "They're a disgrace to the Slytherin name."

Draco winced involuntarily. "Tough luck."

"Yeah, no kidding." Blaise muttered, and closed his eyes. "But I digress. Why this sudden interest in DDR?"

"Better get comfortable, this is going to take some explaining. I guess it all started when the littlest Weasel found me cutting my hair on the train..." For the next half hour, he explained everything that happened in perfect detail, ending with his humiliating defeat the previous night.

"So a Weasley kicked your ass, eh?" asked Blaise, grinning. "You really _do_ need my help, don't you?"

"Shut up. She's getting lessons too, you know. She must've been so afraid she'd lose to me she ran to the best Gryffindor she could find."

"No, she's confident she can beat you any day, but she wants to burn you so badly you'll never insult her or her family - including Potter and the Mudblood - ever again. And how do you know she's got a tutor?"

"I was walking behind her in the halls today and fully intended to push rudely past her and give her the death glare, but then I heard her mutter, and I quote, 'I may tell Dane to call off the lessons after last night. I almost felt sorry for him - he didn't even see it coming.' She thinks she's won already, and I intend to take full advantage of that. And how do _you_ know what she's thinking?"

"Cause her family pride's as strong as mine; I'd be doing the same thing if I was in her place. Now, about those lessons... When do we start?"

"Now." And with that, Draco grabbed Blaise's arm and started dragging him down the corridors towards the Inter-House Challenge Room.

* * *

Ginny walked into the Common Room and, spotting Dane, walked over to him. 

"Dane, I think we should call off the lessons. I'm as good as I need to be."

"No way!" he exploded. "You've got the most potential I've seen in ages, you may even be..." he paused dramatically. "almost as good as me someday! So I'm gonna keep training you. And if you don't like it, then wah, cry me a river."

He looked up at her, expecting her to argue, and was surprised to see her standing perfectly still with a dreamy look on her face.

"Imagine," she said in mock rapture. "To be _almost_ as good as the legendary Dane! All my dreams would come true!"

"Oh, shut up. It'll take a lot of practice for you to be that good, it won't happen overnight. Actually, that a good thing right now, seeing as everyone's talking about you as it is."

"What? They are? Why?"

"Ask Koharu, she's the one that told me about it in the first place." Ginny looked around the common room, encountered a few glares, which puzzled her, and many encouraging grins and thumbs-up signs, which confused her even more, before spotting Koharu studying quietly by the fire.

She looked up at Ginny as she approached. "Hey Gin. What's up?"

"I was talking to Dane a second ago, and he said the whole school's talking about me! When I asked him about it, he said to ask you. So, why me?"

"Because of the competition you're having with that one Slytherin."

"Draco Malfoy?"

"Right. But apparently it's shocking that you two deigned to even talk to each other, much less agreed to be in the same room at the same time."

"So the glares I'm getting..." Ginny started, but Koharu finished for her.

"Are because they're pissed that you're associating with a Malfoy, and the grins are cause they're rooting for you to kick his ass."

Ginny nodded. "Well, it was bound to get out sometime, there was no sense in hiding it. If I did, then when it finally got out, people would wonder why."

Koharu smiled quietly. "Yup, that's about it. Oh, by the way, call me Kagome, okay?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her. "Wha..." she said, and was about to ask where the name came from when Dane rushed over.

"You watch Inuyasha?" he asked Koha...well, Kagome now, excitedly.

"_You_ watch Inuyasha?" she replied, grinning. "No way!"

"Yeah! How many episodes have you seen?"

"The first 45 or so, and then a few here and there after that. Wow, I never thought anyone else at Hogwarts knew about it!"

"Uh... guys? What's Inuashu or whatever it's called?" Ginny interrupted, looking utterly confused.

"Ginny, you don't know about Inuyasha?" Kagome asked. When Ginny shook her head, she launched into a full-blown explanation. "It's this totally awesome anime show with this girl in modern times named Kagome who falls down a well and emerges in the feudal age, and she's got this thing called the Shikon no Tama inside her and all the demons want it, including a half-demon named Inuyasha, but then..."

* * *

"Draco, how many times do I have to tell you to keep your feet off the middle before you get it straight?" Blaise asked, exasperatedly running his hand through his hair. "You'll never be any good if you keep your feet in the middle all the time!" 

"I'm trying, Blaise," Draco growled.

"Obviously, you're not trying hard enough. Think of the serious shot to your ego if you get your ass kicked."

"My pride will be fine whether I win or lose; it's only a stupid Muggle game anyway."

Blaise thought for a moment, then grinned wickedly. "Then think of Pansy's sympathy if you _do_ lose."

"That's too terrible to contemplate," Draco muttered to himself as he pounded out the final steps to the song. He awaited his grade and sighed in frustration when it came back - D.

"Start again, Draco. You're not leaving this room until you get a C at least."

* * *

At 8:00 that night, Ginny stepped into the Inter-House Challenge Room, eager for more practice. She hadn't been able to play since the previous night, and she felt like she was going to die of DDR withdrawal. Seeing the room empty, she sighed happily and stepped onto the left-side pad. Selecting 'Daikenkai', a song with Japanese lyrics she'd become attached to, she smiled. 

"Malfoy didn't show up. I guess he didn't want the humiliation of a rematch."

"You're right about the humiliation part, Red. But Ido want that rematch." Ginny nearly jumped out of her skin. Whipping around, she glared at Draco, not caring that Daikenkai was still going on in the background.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to sneak up on people, you prat?"

"Oh shut up, Weasley, you sound like an old grandmother," Draco retorted. Putting both hands on his hips and conjuring up a voice more shrill than Ginny would have thought possible, he scolded, "Draco Malfoy, if you sneak up on me one more time, you'll give me a heart attack!" Ginny giggled, throwing Draco off balance. He was trying to piss her off, not make her laugh! "What are you laughing at?" he sneered.

Ginny shot him a sideways glance, eyes twinkling. "I was just imagining you in an apron, clutching a big, red purse in your hands."

Ginny swore she saw Draco's lips twitch. "Like Snape, you mean?"

Now it was Ginny's turn to be surprised. Malfoy, being nice to her? But even in her confusion, she grinned. Neville, who was actually quite a good artist when he didn't spill ink all over his work, had drawn a picture of his Snape-boggart for her. It was one of her most prized possessions, and sometimes it was the only thing that kept her from tearing Snape's throat out in Potions. "Something like that," she said.

They stared at each other silently for a moment, then, Draco's eyes widened and his face settled back into its usual disgusted sneer. "I'm not here to talk, Weasel. I don't usually talk to trash, and I don't intend to start now. So let's get on the damn thing so I can beat you."

"You don't usually talk to trash? Then you must not talk to yourself very often," Ginny shot at him as she stepped on the dance pad, face twisted with hate. Draco glared at her as usual, but if she had looked closely, she would've seen a look of confusion in his eyes. _Whoa, we were almost... nice... for a second. What the hell?

* * *

_


	5. DDR: Dane, Dares, and Retching

A/N: 'Ello again, it's absolutely marvelous to see you! Spiffing, in fact. Kinda hard to think of two A/N's within hours of each other, but Ill do my best. Yay, it's 2004 and since we've just had about a foot of snow dumped on us, we may not have to go to school on Monday! Hope so! Vacations are too much fun! Ah yes, I forgot to mention - I got DDR for Christmas, so any of you peeps out there who want to, come hang out at my house! If this note sounds kinda stupid, forgive me. Lack of sleep and drinking about three sodas will do that to you. Anyway, I think I've babbled long enough. On to the chappie!

Disclaimer: J.K. owns all of this except Dane.

* * *

Dancing With The Dragon

A fanfic by two insane idiots, a.k.a. Samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl

Chapter five: D.D.R.; Dane, Dares, and Retching

* * *

Saturday had come to Hogwarts Castle, and Ginny and Kagome were up early. Sitting in a comfy chair by the fire, wearing plaid pajamas, fuzzy slippers, and a smirk Draco Malfoy would envy, was Dane. Kagome and Ginny were pounding it out on the DDR machine, as Dane yelled advice like some kind of dictator. 

"Ginny, stop bouncing! Use as little energy as possible, so your opponent tires first. Kagome, stop glancing at the footpad, you need to memorize the position of the arrows!" On and on it went, until eventually, the song ended. Ginny and Kagome had been playing on non-stop mode, so that they got four songs back-to-back, with no breaks. It had been hard for them both, but they survived... Somehow. Stepping off the machine, Kagome walked up to Dane and whacked him on the shoulder.

"What was that for?" Dane yelped, staring at Kagome with a wounded expression.

Stop giving us advice! Just let us concentrate and critique afterwards, NOT during. Now get up there and show us how it's done!" Kagome snapped. Dane, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like 'meow' under his breath, climbed quickly onto the DDR machine. Ginny and Kagome collapsed in chairs, and watched Dane begin to play. They soon got bored, however, and started playing truth-or-dare, a game apparently common in both Muggle and magical worlds.

"Okay, Kagome. Truth or dare?"

"Dare, of course!" Kagome said confidently. Ginny giggled evilly.

"I was hoping you'd say that! Now, go pants Dane." The last part was said in a whisper, so the unfortunate victim in question wouldn't hear. Kagome's eyes grew wide and her mouth opened in shock.

"Okay!' she said with a maniacal grin. Both girls turned towards Dane, who was yet again trying to pass Max 300. He looked like he was actually doing pretty well. Kagome got up and sneaked up right behind Dane. She began to slowly reach for his pants, when a sudden yell broke the silence.

"YEEEEEESSSSSS! I did it! I passed Max 300 on Heavy!" Ginny had never seen Dane so excited. He was leaping up and down on the DDR pad, with Kagome still standing there, staring fixedly at the notice board as if that wouldn't alert Dane to her presence. After a moment, Dane stopped his crazy leaping and leaned over to catch his breath. Kagome saw her chance, and took it, quickly reaching forward, grabbing his pants, and pulling straight down.

"What the-?" Dane stopped mid-question as a high-pitched and rather girly shriek full from his lips. Kagome and Ginny were doubled up on the floor with laughter, rolling around with tears in their eyes. Dane's boxers were pink. Neon pink. Bright neon pink with lavender bunnies on them. Not only that, they were silk. (A/N: Conley, if you tell Dane about this, we will KILL you.) Kagome was laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe, and Ginny was clutching her stomach, trying to stop it from hurting. Furiously pulling up his pants to cover the pink and purple abomination, a bright red Dane marched off to the boys' dormitory. It took quite some time for the two girls to settle down, but finally they did.

"That was the funniest thing I have ever seen," Kagome said, gasping for air, which prompted another round of laughter. "But anyway, truth or dare, Ginny?" Ginny grinned.

"Dare, of course! But Dane won't take kindly to a second pantsing!" Both girls giggled.

"No, my dare tests your bravery! It's something I used to do with my friends when I got bored. There is, you see, a breed of frog that lives on Hogwarts grounds; its color is dark purple with green spots. I dare you to find one, and lick it!"

Ginny made a face. "Kiss a frog? Bleagh. But a dare is a dare, right? I'm off to find me a frog!" With that, Ginny got up and left the common room, while Kagome went to find Dane and apologize, teasing him about his lovely boxers all the while.

* * *

Draco awoke on Saturday to find the Slytherin common room completely empty. Quickly pulling on a loose pair of designer jeans and a T-shirt, he meandered down to the Great Hall. It was mostly empty, since a good deal of the students were enjoying their last days of good weather outside. Draco decided to do the same, a decision reinforced when he spotted Pansy sitting at the Slytherin table. Quickly grabbing some toast, Draco headed outside to eat while walking around the lake. As he munched, he thought; and without even meaning to, his thoughts turned to a certain flame-haired witch. Frowning, he wondered exactly how he was going to beat her. All of a sudden, his little brother Orion's voice echoed through his head. _You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, big bro._ Draco paused, remembering how Orion had said that all the time. It had been his life philosophy; perhaps that was why Draco had always been his father's favorite. _His philosophies are what got him killed. _Draco thought to himself. _But they are reasonable. Be nice to Ginny, and her fiery competitiveness will leave her! She'll stop practicing so hard, and I'll be able to beat her! _A grin split Draco's face, and just at that moment, our Dragon spotted the red-haired girl in question kneeling at the edge of the lake. Draco frowned. What was she doing? She appeared to be... puking? _What the hell?_ thought Draco, then he shrugged. _Now's just as good a time as ever to start with the honey._

* * *

_Damn it. Last time I listen to Kagome!_ Ginny thought to herself as she heaved more vomit out onto the ground by the lake. Suddenly, she felt a cool hand gently grasp her hair and pull it back, out of the way. Ginny dimly wondered whose hand it was, but was a bit too busy to turn around and discover the identity of her helper. Finally, however, she finished, and turned around slowly, rather embarrassed to be seen like this.

Her chocolate brown eyes, not for the first time, slammed into the liquid silver ones of Draco Malfoy, but she wasn't ready for what she saw. He had a look of sympathy and compassion on his face. Ginny stared at him in shock. _What in the HELL? Dr-Draco? Being NICE?_ The very thought was absurd. Just when Ginny thought she'd recovered from the initial shock, she was flung rudely into it yet again. "You okay, Red?" he asked softly, speaking as if they'd been best friends all their lives.

"Uh... Kagome... frogs... and..." Ginny stuttered, disbelief coursing through her.

"Here," he said gently, conjuring up a toothbrush and some toothpaste and leading her over to another part of the lake. "Maybe this will help." Ginny took it with trembling hands. She felt as if she were living in a parallel universe, where Draco Malfoy was kind and actually _cared_ about a member of the Weasley family. Weirdly enough, she kind of liked it here.

"Th-thank you, Draco," she said, calling him by his first name for the first time. "This is very... er... nice of you." Draco smiled at her, a real smile, not his usual smirk, as she finished washing up and stood awkwardly, wringing her hands.

"Don't mention it. Feel better?" he asked. She looked up at him, nodded, and smiled, albeit a little shakily. "Good." _Maybe he's turned over a new leaf, _Ginny thought happily. _Impossible as it may seem, maybe the cold, cruel Draco Malfoy is finally gone. _Little did she know what Draco was thinking at that very moment. _Heh, what a pushover. She bought it completely! This tournament's mine now; no way can I lose!_

* * *

A/N: It was kinda a short chapter, but we wanted to give you two, so... here they are! Will Ginny find out about Draco's evil plot? Will Draco reform and become nice? What have the Dream Team been doing all this time? And finally... where in the hell _did_ Dane get those boxers? All these questions and more, answered in Chappie 6!

We luff all of our reviewers! You guys are the best ever!


	6. Plots Afoot and Underfoot

A/N from ZiBl: um... :hides under table: DON'T KILL US, WE LOVE YOU! We just got highly distracted from the story, but we're back now! And we fully intend to finish this! Shockingly, I even remember how it's supposed to end. Yay me! Sadly, we must entirely ignore the presence of book 6 because it screws this story to hell. I don't remember if this was written before or after 5, so.. Um.. Yeah. Sorry about that. And don't kill us, pweeeeaaaaaase!

A/N from samwise-dragoneyes: um...sorry about that...but we just got caught up in things, and one thing led to another, and...well...I'M SORRY! I FEEL SO HORRIBLE! Anyways, I hope someone is actually still looking forward to this, because we think we'll have it finished soon...

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon

By: Two insane idiots, a.k.a. samwise-dragoneyes and ZiBl

Chapter 6: Plots afoot and underfoot

* * *

Draco made his way, as usual, to the inter-house challenge room that night, hoping to run into Weasley so he could charmingly ask her how she was feeling after that morning's incident. His smirk, full of evil malice, flickered triumphantly across his face, quickly replaced by a seemingly caring smile as he entered the challenge room, hoping to find Ginny already there. When he entered the room and saw, to his great surprise, no sign of Ginny. Instead, a sour-looking Michael Corners leaned against the machine. Draco stopped in dead surprise, barely managing to whip up a look of haughty disdain.

"Corners? What are you doing in here?" He asked. Michael's eyes swept up to meet Draco's.

"I hear you have a bet going with the youngest Weasley," he said calmly. _Damn. News travels fast here,_ Draco thought, surprised. It had only been about a week, so how did Michael find out? Did everyone know?

"Yeah, so? Who I bet with is my own decision."

"I want to help you win." Michael's voice was low and dangerous, and Draco arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"What? Why?" An evil smile crossed Michael's face.

"Revenge, of course. No body dumps me the way she did. I could help you. I could get close to Ginny again, win her trust. Then hex her 'til she can't even move, much less play DDR." Draco resisted the temptation to widen his eyes in shock at this revolting speech. _He must really hate her, even I wouldn't stoop that low._ He stood as straight and tall as he could and gave Michael the best haughty and disdain-filled Malfoy glare he could muster.

"I would sooner gouge my eyes out than except the help of a low-down rat like you. I don't need your help to beat her, that wouldn't be beating her at all." He strode forward until he was toe-to-toe with Michael, and jabbed his finger into the younger boy's chest. "And for your information, slimeball, a girl has free reign over who she chooses to date, and who she chooses to dump." His voice oozed contempt, and with a parting scowl at Michael, he whipped around and stalked out of the room. _Who does that prat think he is? Revenge on Red like that... Wait, I am NOT caring about her. He could hex her to a coma for all I care, except then I couldn't beat her into the ground. I'll just practice in the Room of Requirement tonight._ From the inter-house challenge room, Michael glowered at the Slytherin leaving the room, rubbing the spot on his chest where Draco had jabbed him.

* * *

Ginny sat in an overstuffed armchair in the Gryffindor common room, her legs crossed irately and a frown on her face as she stared at Kagome, who sat opposite her. "Ginny, I already said I was sorry! You must havefound the wrong species of frog, I never would have told you to lick one that caused you to puke!" Ginny could already feel her anger lessening as she gazed at the repentant look on Kagome's face. Finally, she sighed and uncrossed her legs.

"Fine, I forgive you. Just no more frog-licking, ever. Alright?" Kagome grinned her agreement as Ginny's gaze flickered over the Japanese girl's shoulder to meet the eyes of the Dream Team, who were walking up to her.

"Ginny, we need to talk." Snapped Ron, reaching her first. Ginny surveyed him cooly.

"What about, brother dear?" Ron flushed pink at her innocent tone of voice, and opened his mouth to retaliate when Harry quickly slapped a hand over Ron's mouth. Hermione stepped forward, a troubled look in her eyes.

"It's about the bet with Malfoy, Ginny. We're worried about it. He's plotting something, he has to be. He's going to get you alone and... hurt you or something." Hermione's voice sounded worried, and Ginny sighed.

"What have you heard about the bet, anyway?" She asked. Ron finally slipped out of Harry's grasp, and responded to the question.

"Just that after the Christmas holiday, you and that...that...PRAT are competing at that GAME. Why the hell were you even talking to him anyway? What was in your thick skull to make you to make a bet like that?" Ginny had heard enough. She stood, every inch of herfive footsix inch body radiating fury.

"Ronald Weasley, you CAD. What I do with my life is my own damn business, understood? If you ever call me thick again, I'll turn you into a newt. A bright pink one with lavender spots!" She turned then to Hermione, ignoring Kagome stifling a laugh at Ginny's choice in newt colors. "And Hermione, Draco is not plotting anything. It is a harmless bet which will cause him much humiliation when I win. So butt out. I have my own life, and I can make my own choices with it!" Ron turned purple when she called Draco by his first name, and opened his mouth to say something else when Ginny slapped him full across the face. The common room fell deathly silent. Every head was turned to the Weasleys. No one had ever seen sweet little Ginny slap anybody, much less her own brother.

"Ginny..." Hermione said, looking close to tears. "We're just worried about you." Ginny turned to her.

"I said butt out." Her tone fell like a winter's frost as she whirled and stalked up the stairs to the Girls' Dormitory. Everyone stared after her in shock.

* * *

Draco stomped on the pad, his breath coming in small hisses, more in anger than exhaustion, as he pounded out his anger at Michael on the DDR machine specially created by the Room of Requirement. _That rat... I can beat her on my own, I don't need his cheating help. I have more pride than that._ The song, entitled "Exotic Ethnic" ended, and his score came back: C. "Damnit!" He yelled, hitting a fist against the machine in rage. _I have to win this, or that brat will make me look like an idiot in front of the entire school! She's got balls, though, I'll give her that._. He stood up and swiftly turned around as the door behind him creaked open. Blaise walked in, took one look at Draco's face, and flopped down on the black velvet couch by next to the machine.

"Bad day, huh?" Blaise asked, looking tiredly at Draco. Draco nodded in return.

"Corners volunteered to hex Ginny halfway to Hell right before the match." Blaise's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Corners? Her ex? Good god, does he realize the insult to your family name?" Draco shook his head then, and Blaise sighed. Draco flopped on the couch next to him and then proceeded to inform Blaise of his plan to charm the Wicked Witch. When he had finished, Blaise nodded his head. "Smart plan, Draco. Charm the snake before it bites. But don't get cocky. She's prideful. She'll still try her best." Draco smiled.

"She'll need to do much better than that to beat a Malfoy." Blaise looked over at him.

"You sound just like another Malfoy I know, Draco." Draco scowled. _Damn you, father. Even when you're not here you influence my thoughts more than I'd like._ Blaise grinned soberly. "Well if you're going to beat her that bad, you'd better get your ass back on that pad and practice. Draco nodded grimly, then stepped up once more and shortly began stepping out the steps to "Dam Darriram", another techno song with a fun but soft beat.

* * *

Ginny sat on her four-poster bed, scowling. _He's not up to anything. I'm not even sure he's as bad as everyone says. Sure, he's MALFOY, but today by the lake... _She sighed, frustrated. What the hell had been up with that, anyway? Draco being nice... Something just didn't fit, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Whatever. She'd give him a second chance, but she had to stay completely alert for Malfoy trickery. Yawning, she curled up in bed and drifted off to sleep with arrows running through her mind. But right before she totally lost consciousness, a pair of storm-silver eyes drifted into her thoughts.

Ginny dreamed that night. She was trapped inside the DDR machine, looking out at a cold, bare room. Nobody else was in sight. "Hello?" She called out, but her voice was muffled and didn't come out clearly. "Is anyone there?" Silence greeted her. Looking around, all she could see were the empty stone walls of the room and the metal of the DDR machine. _I'll try calling for help once more_. She thought and then yelled as loud as she could "IS ANYBODY THERE?" Her voice came out louder and clearer than before, and echoed off the walls and out the entryway into the stone hall beyond. The echoes died, and the sound of bare feet padding on the floor came closer and closer. A young boy who looked to be around eight or nine entered the room wearing a flannel emerald bathrobe. Ginny squinted at him... He looked strangely familiar, and yet like no one she'd ever seen before. He smiled.

"Don't be afraid." The boy's voice was soft and misty, almost as if he didn't really exist. Ginny stared. Why does he look so familiar? His eyes were large and light blue, full of joy and kindness. His hair was medium length, and blonde. Then it hit Ginny. His smile... It looked just like Draco's had at the lake. Could this be... young Draco? The boy laughed, as if he had read Ginny's thoughts. "No, I'm not Draco. Maybe if you ask him, he'll tell you who I am." The boy laughed lightly, and vanished.

"Wait!" Ginny cried after him, but he didn't reappear.

"Ginny?" Another voice was calling, one she couldn't tell where it came from. She looked around wildly. "Ginny?"

"Huh?" Her dream shattered as her eyes flew open. She looked wildly around, and found herself to be in the middle of a school hallway. _I must have been sleepwalki... _Her thought broke off as her eyes hit the shocking silver ones in front of her. _Of all people to wake me up..._

* * *

Draco stared into the muddled brown eyes before him. Ginny was looking around as if she was lost. "Ginny...?" He asked again. "What are you doing?" She stared up at him, and her eyes focused more.

"I must have been sleepwalking..." She muttered under her breath. Suddenly, her breath caught and her eyes opened wide. "Draco? Have you ever met a young boy with happy blue eyes and longish blonde hair?" The question hit Draco like a thunderbolt. _That sounds like... Orion._ "Draco? Are you okay?" Ginny's voice cut across his racing thoughts. He looked back at her and realized he had taken a step back without knowing it.

"I-I'm fine." Draco said, pulling himself together as best he could. How does she about Orion? More importantly, what did she know? Her eyes studied him, and there was concern written in them. Concern. For a Malfoy. Mentally, Draco smirked. Looks like my plan is going nicely...

"So do you know the boy?" Ginny asked again. He frowned at her. _Little prat doesn't need to know about him._

"I don't want to talk about it." Draco snapped. Ginny was the one to take a step back this time. "And besides, I have to get back to the common room. You should get back to yours. If we're caught at this time of night out and about, we're screwed." He glanced into her eyes once before walking away. _She looked so hurt... Whatever. I'll just be an absolute sweetie tomorrow._ He glanced over his shoulder as he turned the corner, to find that Ginny had already disappeared in the opposite direction. "Whatever." He muttered under his breath.

* * *

A/N: YAY IT'S DOOOOONE! Alright y'all review. Are we losing our touch? Do we still got it? We're going somewhere with this plot, don't worry! 


	7. Closer by the Hour

A/N from ZiBl – Hiiiiiii! Well, it didn't take that long this time, did it? Right? RIGHT? Well, we're moving along nicely, I think. Chapter Seven already! And considering this piece only has ten chapters... That's pretty good! So read on, dear readers, this will be done before the New Year sets in. And by new year, we mean 2010. Just kidding! I hope...

A/N from S-D: Well, hello again! Abject apologies! It's really my fault this is so late, my mother grounded me from the computer for several weeks and then I got wrapped up in schoolwork and such, so sorry! But…I finished it….cringes Don't kill me…

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns it all, so no suing. Not like we could pay you anyway.

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon

By ZiBl and samwise-dragoneyes, two insane idiots

Chapter 7: Closer by the Hour

* * *

Ginny shivered as she slipped her feet out of her frazzled slippers and placed them gingerly on the icy stone floor of the inter-house challenge room. The weather had grown colder as school progressed, and as it was already the second friday of October, the dungeon was more like a freezer than anything else. Ginny gave a resigned sigh as she stepped onto the DDR pad; she was forced to dance barefoot, as neither her school socks or loafers had sufficient traction. _I wish I had some socks with grips or something..._ A draft blowing through the dungeon made her shiver. _Or at the very least, some warmer pajamas._ She still wore the ratty baby blue pajamas, as they were her only pair.

Sighing again, Ginny stretched her arms to the ceiling. A sudden sound from the doorway caused her to startle and spin around, but it was only Draco. He stood in the entry, looking as majestic as ever in his beautiful green-lined velvet cloak. Without a word, he unclasped the silver dragon clasp and dropped the cape neatly to the ground. Slipping off his slippers, he stepped onto the machine beside Ginny.

"Good evening, Draco. My, don't you look warm and cozy tonight." Ginny said tartly to Draco, glancing at his snug looking flannel pajamas. Draco flashed her one of his famous Malfoy smirks.

"I feel a good deal cozier than you look." Ginny childishly stuck her tongue out at him. Since the night he caught her sleepwalking, she and Draco acted nicer to each other, but it was a friendship based more on insults than anything else. He teased her about her shabby clothing, and she taunted him about his stuck-up attitude. Still, it _was_ friendship, and Ginny's original suspicions about Draco's intents were fading slowly but surely. She sometimes did wonder about him, though. There were times she caught herself watching him when he thought no one was looking, and she always saw an expression of cold loneliness resting on his face. Ginny often wondered late into the night whether all of Draco's haughtiness wasn't just an act.

"Hey Red, are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend with your little friends?" Draco's voice cut across Ginny's train of thought. _That's right; the first Hogsmeade weekend starts tomorrow._

"Of course, Kagome and I have been planning it for a week now."

"Good. Gives me more time to practice." Ginny looked at Draco in surprise. He winked.

"You mean you're not going?" _Maybe I should ask him to co- wait, WHAT? We're friendly, but not _that_ friendly._

"Just teasing, Gin. Blaise and I are going, if only to show our disdain of everyone and everything." Ginny laughed. _That's those two all right. _

"So, are we gonna play, or stand around gossiping all day?" she asked him tauntingly. Draco smirked and hit the 'Start' button. By this time, both he and Ginny could play on Standard level, as could Kagome.

"You choose the first song." Draco told Ginny as he languidly stretched his legs out. Ginny flipped through the songs, watching Draco out of the corner of her eye. Finally, she chose a song entitled 'Rhythm and Police'. She smiled at Draco and batted her eyelashes innocently.

"Good luck, Drakie. You'll need it." Draco opened his mouth to snap out a quick retort, but arrows started scrolling across the screen before he could say anything.

_

* * *

Damn you, Red. The thought flashed across his mind as his feet began stepping out the rhythm. __Always have to get the better of me._ A faint blush spread across Draco's face. Normally, anyone to insult a Malfoy so would instantly be cursed into oblivion. But somehow, he didn't really mind all that much when Ginny teased him. Sure, he wanted to win their little word battles, but it didn't matter all that much if he lost. The final notes of the song hung in the air as the scores came up on-screen. Both were 'B's, but Draco had just a few more points than Ginny. With a triumphant smile, he turned to face her. His grin widened when he saw how out of breath she was. The thought flashed across his mind as his feet began stepping out the rhythm. A faint blush spread across Draco's face. Normally, anyone to insult a Malfoy so would instantly be cursed into oblivion. But somehow, he didn't really mind all that much when Ginny teased him. Sure, he wanted to win their little word battles, but it didn't matter all that much if he lost. The final notes of the song hung in the air as the scores came up on-screen. Both were 'B's, but Draco had just a few more points than Ginny. With a triumphant smile, he turned to face her. His grin widened when he saw how out of breath she was. 

"Feeling tired already? But we just got started." Mock contempt oozed from Draco's voice. Ginny, her hair lightly messed up and her face flushed, grinned at him.

"I put in a lot of practice before I came down here."

"A lot of good that did you. I won!"

"The round, not the game, Draco." She leaned over to catch her breath, and as she did so, a necklace hidden under the collar of her pajamas slipped out. His eye caught by the sudden movement, Draco leaned in to get a closer look. From the simple metal chain hung a medallion about an inch tall and three-quarters of an inch wide.

"What's that, Gin? I never knew you wore a necklace. Isn't that something only girls do?" Ginny laughed and held out the pendant for Draco's inspection, keeping the chain around her neck. Gently, he took the medallion in his hand and studied it. The oval shape fit neatly into his palm, and the metal felt warm to his touch. Inscribed into the silver-colored surface was the profile of an elegant dragon with wings flaring out behind it. A stream of delicately embossed fire flew from the mouth. Draco turned the pendant over to discover an inscription on the back.

"It's in Latin." Ginny's voice was soft. "I've never known what it says because I can't read it."

"'Lux eternum'… That means 'eternal light'. I've studied Latin since I was five, so…" He looked up, and realized how close to Ginny he was. Aside from running into her a few times, he'd never been this near. His eyes met hers, and held. Her eyes looked soft, and a surprising warmth radiated from them. "It's a beautiful necklace. Where'd you get it?" He slowly released the medallion and stepped back, breaking the moment.

"My brother Charlie sent it to me from Romania. He works with dragons there. I've worn it every day since he gave it to me. But at the beginning of this year, I accidentally left it on my nightstand back home in the rush to get to the train station. Mum had to try and owl it to me twice. Our owl got lost the first time," Ginny said quietly. When she finished, she slipped the necklace back under her pajamas. _She looks so friendly right now…can she actually care about me? No, that's stupid. She's probably doing the same thing I am: Trying to make friends with the enemy. But…am I starting to care about her…?_ He was jerked from his train of thought as Ginny poked his shoulder.

"What?" He asked, blinking like someone who just woke up.

"You gonna take a nap, or are we gonna DDR?" She hit the random song selector, and in the next few seconds, they were both pounding out the steps to 'Captain Jack'.

* * *

The morning of the first Hogsmeade weekend dawned bright and clear, and the sunlight slanting through the window woke Draco. Taking a moment to glare at the source of his rude awakening, he glanced around his dormitory to find everyone else fast asleep. Grinning, he stretched, then took his pillow and flung it at Blaise's head.

"Nng…" Blaise mumbled, than turned over and began to snore, as well as snuggle with the pillow Draco had just thrown at him. Draco rolled his eyes and got out of bed. Quickly putting on his designer jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt, he left the room. He reached the common room and took a few steps inside when a sudden voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Oh Drakie! I brought you some breakfast!" Draco groaned and glanced up to find Pansy bouncing excitedly on her toes and holding a tray piled high with breakfast.

"Pansy, I couldn't eat that much in a day, much less one sitting. You see, unlike you, I don't spend all day shoveling food into my fat, ugly, pimpled face." Pansy froze in mid-bounce, and Draco took the opportunity to saunter past her and exit the common room. Meandering to the great hall, he grabbed a piece of toast and wandered out onto the grounds to eat it. Stopping by the edge of the lake, he took his shoes and socks off and dangled his feet into the cold water.

_I'm getting all sorts of blisters from playing that game so much. I can't remember the last time my feet hurt like this. _He sighed and ran a hand through his elegantly spiked hair. _And what is going on with Ginny? I really think I might be starting to like her…AS A FRIEND. Just a friend. Nothing else. But she is funny, and smart, and…whoa, hold it Draco. You only got friendly with her to make her practice less hard. Well, it didn't work. She practices just as hard as before. I could just stop acting nice. But…I really don't want to…_ Frustrated with his wishy-washy thoughts, he stuffed the last piece of toast into his mouth and got up. Putting back on his socks and shoes, he went to the entry hall, passed Filch's inspection, and was off on his way to Hogsmeade.

_I'll meet up with Blaise later._ Draco thought as he glanced at his watch. _First, I have some business to attend to._

* * *

For Ginny, the first Hogsmeade weekend passed by uneventfully. Since it had been Kagome's first ever, Ginny spent the whole time showing her all the various parts of the little wizard town. Kagome had been especially entranced by the Shrieking Shack and all the legends that surrounded it. The schooldays following the weekend flew by almost unnoticed, until finally, Halloween arrived. The great Halloween feast was something Ginny usually looked forward to with great delight and anticipation. But this year, she didn't even feel like attending. Standing at the entrance to the great hall, she looked in to find everyone happily chatting and waiting for the food. She sighed and turned away from the door.

_Weird, I'm not even hungry. Meh, might as well go get some extra practice. Draco's actually on my level now, so I'm going to have to work harder than ever to beat him into the ground. Whether he's being nice to me or not, my family pride is still at stake. Not to mention what happens if I lose…_ Shuddering at the thought of failure, she changed her thoughts. _What is up with Draco anyway? I wonder if he even noticed the way he was looking at me yesterday. _The mental image of Draco's eyes looking up at her rose in her mind. _He looked like a lost little boy in need of a hug, for crying out loud. Like anyone would ever be brave enough to hug him._

Her thoughts stopped short as she entered the inter-house challenge room. A silver-colored box rested on the DDR pad she always used. Dumbfounded, she stepped forward and read the card attached to the emerald green ribbon wrapped around the box.

_Hey Red,_

_I was feeling bored and rich_

_the other day, and thought_

_you could use these._

_Draco_

_P.S. This does NOT_

_mean we're friends._

_You're still a weasel._

She blinked. Draco got her a present? This was nothing short of miraculous. After gently pulling off the ribbon, she took away the lid of the box and gasped. Inside lay two pairs of crimson pajamas, one set made of flannel and the other made of silk. Aside from color and size, they were an exact match to the ones Draco owned. Ginny pulled the pajamas out of the box and held them up. They looked as if they would fit her perfectly. Glancing back into the box, she spotted something which had been hidden under the pajamas. Ginny pulled it out and realized it was a pair of warm black socks, with little rubber grips on the bottom so she wouldn't slip when she played DDR.

Ginny sniffled, and noticed that her eyes were wet. She hugged the pajamas to her and let a few tears slide down her face. _This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. And from Draco…he's wonderful. He's just…wonderful._

Unbeknownst to her, hidden in the shadows of the entry, a pair of storm silver eyes watched her, and a real smile flitted across Draco Malfoy's face.

* * *

A/N: And there you have it, Chapter seven. Things are changing fast now, and I think our two heroes might just be falling in love. Er… We did warn you that this was a romance, didn't we? Oh, well, it is. Deal with it. Review, please! 


	8. Snowfall and Shadows

A/N from ZiBl: Hiya! Wow, two chapters in two months! You lucky, lucky people. I am waaaaay too tired to write any sort of author's note right now, so bleagh on all y'alls. :hug: But I absolutely love you for being a faithful reader. Or a new reader. ANY KIND OF READER! Whatever!

A/N from S-D: Hiiiiiiiiiii! I'm so super excited for this chapter, and don't forget, there's only 2 more to go! Not that I want this fic to end, but... I'm excited for it anyways! And yes, I love you all muchly!

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon 

Two insane idiots named ZiBl and Samwise Dragoneyes

Chapter 8: Snow Fall and Shadows

* * *

"Slept well last night, did you?" Draco looked up from his breakfast. Blaise stood across the table from him, with dark circles ringing his eyes and a dry half-smile on his lips. 

"Why, yes I did, so kind of you to ask. Though I must say, you look simply awful." Draco replied. Blaise sat down and glared at the spiky-haired Slytherin across the table.

"Thanks to you, I got kept up most of the night, forced to comfort Pansy. She kept bawling on about how mean you are to her." Blaise sighed and put his head into his hands. "I think I need to find myself a girl, to make me unavailable." Draco patted his hand in sympathy.

"Good plan. If we have girlfriends, the cow can't bother us nearly as much." Draco took a quick bite of cereal. "Now all we have to do is find some likely girls."

"What about you and Ginny?" Blaise said, almost thoughtfully. Draco, in the process of having another bite of cereal, choked. Coughing, he looked up at Blaise.

"You are kidding, right?"

"It sure would shake dear old Daddy up a bit." Blaise pointed out. Draco snorted.

Yeah, him and the rest of the world." He muttered. Just then, he felt a hesitant tap on his shoulder. He turned around, half expecting to see Pansy. It was Ginny. Draco's eyebrows shot up. "Red! What the hell are you doing?" Casting a furtive glance around, he stood up, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her into the entry hall. "Do NOT talk to me in front of the other Slytherins! What are you trying to do, ruin my good name?"

"You've never had a good name, Draco," Ginny said, looking mildly annoyed at his violent reaction. "And I just wanted to say thank you." Draco blinked.

"Well, I didn't want my opponent to freeze to death before the competition. Then I'd only win by default, instead of pounding you into the ground."

"You pound me? That over confidence will be your doom." She smiled, and her whole face seemed to light up. "Thank you again." She hesitated a moment, then flung her arms around him in a hug. _What the fuck?_ The surprised Draco barely got the thought out before he heard a gasp from the direction of the Great Hall. Looking up, he spotted Blaise and a Japanese girl he didn't know gaping at him and Ginny.

"Ginny!" the Japanese girl's voice came out as a surprised squeak. Ginny calmly let go of Draco and turned, realizing that they had company.

"Kagome?" She arched an eyebrow and cast a challenging glance at her friend.

"Um... nothing."

"Draco...?" Blaise took a step closer, looking warily at Draco as if he had just sprouted horns.

"Blaise," Draco responded, trying to keep his voice level.

"Well, good. Now we're all introduced," Blaise said brightly, turning to Kagome. "It's very nice to meet you." She looked absolutely stunned at being addressed by the second hottest boy in school. Draco, of course,being the first.

"Umm... nice to meet you, too," she managed to say, blushing a furious scarlet.

"Well, this has been fun. Let's do it again sometime, shall we? When we don't have classes to attend?" Ginny asked tartly, and then stalked off. Draco shot Blaise a "what-the-hell" look before walking off in the opposite direction. Blaise grinned at Kagome.

"See you later!" he winked, and walked after Draco. Kagome just stood there, wondering if the entire school had gone absolutely mad.

* * *

November passed incident free, and December finally arrived, accompanied by a good deal of freezing wind and snow. By halfway through the month, Draco, Ginny, and Kagome could pass all but the hardest DDR songs. Dane had finally beat them all. He was now working on getting an 'A' on the hardest of all: Paranoia Survivor Max 290, or PSM for short. Then, one morning right before the winter holidays, Draco received an urgent owl from his mother Narcissa. Unable to open it at breakfast due to Pansy's hounding, he slipped it into his schoolbag. That night, in the safety of his dorm, he opened it. 

_Draco,_

_I regret to inform you that your_

_father Lucius has been arrested_

_on Death Eater charges. Until_

_this legal battle is fought out, our_

_mansion has been confiscated._

_I am staying in a hotel until this_

_is over. Please remain at Hogwarts_

_for the winter and spring holidays._

_Your Mother,_

_Narcissa Malfoy_

Draco caught his breath, and re-read the note. Lucius? ARRESTED? This was just way too good to be true. _The bastard certainly deserved it after Orion._ At that moment, Blaise dashed into the room, slamming the door behind him. He quickly walked over to Draco.

"That dratted whore Pansy is getting worse and worse. One of these days, I'm just going to curse her to –"

"Blaise." Draco interrupted his friend. "Lucius got arrested on Death Eater charges."

Blaise, who had been pacing back and forth angrily, stopped and stared at Draco.

"What?" Draco handed him the note. As his eyes skimmed the parchment, Blaise's smile grew, and by the end of the note, he was practically radiating joy. "Draco, this is great! You know what this means? You're free. You're not just his little minion anymore. You can be whoever you want, without worrying about Lucius." It was starting to sink in.

"Free..." all his life, Draco had been expected to be nothing more than a little clone of his father. He was expected to take up his heritage, to wear it proudly. He'd hated it. _I can really be anything, now. Anything... Not even have to worry about whether I'm friends with the right crowd or not. _Immediately, the laughter of a certain redhead filled his mind. Until now, it would have been impossible to be anything other than secret friends with Ginny. But without Lucius in the picture... _We could actually hang out in public. I do enjoy being around her. I don't like her or anything, of course. Not like she's ever going to like me, even if I did like her. Of course, I don't._

_Yes you do,_ Replied a rebellious little voice in the back of his mind.

"Don't." Muttered Draco.

"Draco, don't just sit there mumbling to yourself! This requires celebration. To the kitchens for a good cold butterbeer!" Blaise strode off, happily humming to himself. Draco looked after Blaise and wondered what had got him so cheerful and carefree.

_It's almost like he's in love with someone,_ said the little voice.

"Oh, shut up," Draco told it firmly as he followed his friend to the kitchens.

* * *

Ginny thought the winter holidays would never come, but they had at last. At the moment, most students were boarding the Hogwarts Express for home. Ginny had opted to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas, mostly because Ron was going home. Ever since she had slapped him, he cast dark looks in her direction whenever the two crossed paths. The thought of being shut up in a house with him all holiday was more than Ginny could bear. 

Also, staying at Hogwarts gave her time to perfect her DDR technique. After all, the challenge was a mere two weeks away. Ginny and Draco had agreed that the challenge would take place at one o'clock the day after students came back from holiday and the day before classes started again.

But what would happen after the challenge? Would Draco still be her friend? _Unlikely. He'll distance himself from me and forget me the second this ends. No matter who wins... _Since she'd first come across him cutting his own hair with a knife on the Hogwarts express, Ginny had discovered a whole new side to the seemingly cold and heartless Slytherin. He was funny and witty, and she never ran out of things to talk to him about. Plus, underneath all the arrogance, he was rather nice and caring. She smiled to herself, thinking again of the pajamas he'd given her. They kept her quite comfy-cozy during DDR sessions.

_Hmm... I should go practice some. The jumps in 'Healing Vision (angelic mix)' are still pretty tough for me. _Ginny let her wandering feet take her to the inter-challenge room. She entered the room to find it cast into darkness. Normally, two ever-burning torches on either side of the room kept it brightly lit. Stopping, Ginny waited until her eyes adjusted to the dim interior. Suddenly, a shadow that had been leaning against the machine stood up and moved toward her.

"I knew you'd come down here eventually, Weasley." Ginny frowned, trying to place the voice.

"Michael? Michael Corners?"

"Right the first time."

"What the hell are you doing? You almost gave me a heart attack, skulking about in the dark like that."

"Almost? I'll have to do better than that." He pulled his wand out from the inside of his robe and pointed it at her chest. Ginny automatically reached for her own wand. It wasn't there. With a sickening lurch in her stomach, she realized that she'd left it in her dorm room. _Oh shit._

"Why are you doing this?" Ginny fought to keep her voice calm and reasonable, despite her growing panic.

"Nobody dumps me the way you did."

"That's it? You're attacking me because I dumped you? Ages ago, I might add. Pathetic, Corners. You know, you'll never get away with this. A teacher will come in any second now."

"They're all busy watching the train. And I think I'll get away with it quite nicely. Curse you so you can't move, kick you around a bit, curse you a bit more... And end it all with a memory charm so you have no clue what happened." By this point, Michael had backed her into a corner. She stumbled, and fell backwards, hitting her head on the wall and sliding into a sitting position. _Oh crap..._ She thought, trying to find a way out of this situation. _Damn it. I can't even attack him by hand. The second I even move, he'd petrify me. _Michael took another step forward, raising his wand. A look of twisted hatred filled his face. Ginny closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, waiting for the blow.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

_That isn't Michael's voice..._ Her eyes flew open just as the torches blazed back to life. Half blinded, she threw up an arm to block the light.

"Gin? Ginny? Are you okay?" She slowly opened her eyes to find Draco on one knee beside her, his brilliant eyes full of concern. She looked past him to see Michael lying petrified on the ground, with only his eyes still moving, darting about worriedly. "Ginny?" Draco lightly put his hand on the side of her face and guided her gaze back to his. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." She answered. The warmth of his hand on her face was distracting her thoughts and causing her heart to race even harder. He removed his hand and held it out to her, helping her to stand. She rose and walked over to Michael. Standing over him, she smiled a cold, cruel smile. Bending swiftly over, she picked up his wand, which he'd dropped when Draco petrified him. Still smiling, she held it up and snapped it cleanly in two. Throwing the broken pieces at his face, she whirled and stalked out of the room. Draco followed.

"Thank goodness I decided to play DDR when I did..." Draco trailed off as he noticed the tears pouring out ofGinnys eyes. "Ginny?" She turned and flung herself into his arms, sobbing into his chest.

"Damn it... I was so scared. I didn't know what he was going to do to me. He could have raped me or something. And I wasn't able to do anything!" Draco slowly circled her with his arms and held her as she cried.

"It's okay now, he didn't hurt you. He won't, anymore. And if he tries to..." Draco's face twisted in malice. At that moment, Professor McGonagall turned the corner into the corridor. What she saw was an angry looking Malfoy holding a crying Weasley.

Automatically, she assumed the worst: that Draco was attacking Ginny.

"Mr. Malfoy!" she snapped, and Ginny and Draco immediately jumped apart. "What on Earth are you doing to Ms. Weasley?" Draco opened his mouth, but no words came out. No one was going to believe this. They'd all think Draco attacked Michael, then Ginny.

"He's saving my life, professor." Ginny said quietly, wiping away all her tears. Both Draco and McGonagall stared at her.

"What do you mean?" asked the professor.

"I was just entering the inter-house challenge room to play some DDR when Michael Corners attacked me."

"Corners? Attacked you?" McGonagall interrupted, her eyebrows rising to nearly above her hairline.

"Yes. He pointed his wand at me and threatened to do some very nasty things to me. I left my wand in my dorm today because there were no classes, so I was basically powerless. He backed me into a corner and was about to attack me when Draco paralyzed him. He's still in there." She waved a hand at the inter-house challenge room. McGonagall, still shocked, entered the room to find Michael petrified on the floor. He stared at her with eyes that clearly said 'Oh shit'. McGonagall unpetrified him, grabbed him by the ear, and marched him off down the corridor.

"Come, Mr. Corners. We are going to pay a little visit to Professor Dumbledore. We'll see what he has to say about you attacking another student." When they had passed out of sight, Ginny looked up at Draco and smiled.

"Thank you for saving me." He smiled back.

"Not a problem."

Later that afternoon, they heard the good news the Michael was expelled. The remains of his wand were burned, an even greater dishonor than merely having it broken.

* * *

The time until Christmas sped by, and before Draco knew it, he was sitting down to a splendid Christmas tea. He hadn't received any presents from his family that year, what with his father in jail and his mother living in a hotel. In fact the only present he did receive this year was from Blaise, who gave him a new watch, as Draco's old one had broken sometime in November. 

Draco thoroughly enjoyed his Christmas tea, as he was the only Slytherin to stay at the castle that winter. He could just enjoy his meal in silence, without listening to Crabbe chewing with his mouth open, or Goyle snorting as he shoveled food into his mouth. From the other end of the table, Ginny caught his attention and sent a small dove she had gotten from a wizard cracker over to him. The dove held a note in its mouth.

_Meet me at the top_

_of the Astronomy_

_Tower in 15 minutes._

He finished reading and glanced up to see her already leaving the room. Grabbing his present to her off of the bench beside him, he got up and made his way to the tower.

Snow drifted lightly down as he stepped out onto the balcony. Ginny stood at the edge, looking over the frosted lake and powdered trees. She turned as she heard his approach. _Wow. She looks like a Christmas angel with that snow in her hair._ Draco smiled.

"What did you want to see me about?" He asked quietly, unwilling to let his voice shatter the stillness of the snowfall.

"Here. Happy Christmas." She held out a small white box with a scarlet ribbon tied neatly around it. Draco carefully undid the ribbon and pulled off the lid. Inside, nestled among a piece of white tissue paper, Ginny's necklace shone softly. He looked up at her, eyes large and full of surprise.

"Your necklace? But, Red..."

"Please. I want you to have it. I thought very hard about what to get you for a present. I don't have the money to really get you anything nice. But I realized the necklace was a perfect gift. After all, it's my most valued possession, and you're... my most valued friend."

"Ginny..."

_He looks so adorable right now, his eyes gleaming like liquid silver.And so unreal, with the snow falling all around his face._

"Thank you so much. I know what this necklace means to you," Draco's soft voice broke into her thoughts. She smiled as he slipped it around his neck and fastened it. _I don't think I'll ever admit it, but he means more to me than anything._

"It looks good on you." It was true. Silver really was Draco's color. He blushed ever so slightly, and a soft smile touched his lips.

"Thanks. Here, it's not as great a gift as what you gave me." He handed her a soft object, wrapped in silver paper. Ginny carefully opened it, and gasped. She held in her hands a warm velvet cloak, deep black on the outside, and crimson on the inside. The clasp had been crafted into the shape of a golden Phoenix with wings spread out on both side and rubies for eyes.

"Wow. It's... beautiful." Ginny swirled the cloak around her shoulders and clasped it. Draco smiled.

"So you like it, then?"

"I love it; it's so soft and warm! Thank you so much, Draco."

"Happy Christmas, Ginny." They smiled at each other, both seeming to almost glow in the soft snow light.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter is the long awaited and muchly anticipated COMPETITION! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Who will win? Will it be Draco? Ginny? Or will giant plague-infested rats take over the castle? We shall all see in the next chapter of... DANCING WITH THE DRAGON! 

BTW, we haven't forgotten about shout-outs! We'll be doing them at the end of Chapter 9, so it'll be quite a long list! STAY TUNED!


	9. Let the Games End Here

A/N from ZiBl: W007! Here we are, at long last, at the tourney. Without further ado: enjoy!

A/N from samwise: Yaaay! I've been wanting to write this chapter from the moment we came up with this story, and I hope you love it as much as I do! But what are you doing reading this? The chapter awaits…

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon  
By Samwise-Dragoneyes and ZiBl, two insane idiots  
Chapter 9: Let the Games End Here

* * *

Ginny awoke to a thrown pillow hitting her in the face. "HEY, SLEEPYHEAD! It's tournament day! So get out there and you show that Malfoy boy what you're made of!" Kagome's enthusiastic yells woke up not only Ginny, but the rest of their dorm mates.

"Kagome, keep it down, we're trying to sleep," a disheveled Sarah mumbled from her bed opposite Ginny's. The other girl in their year, Abby, just rolled over and went back to sleep. Ginny tried to do the same, but Kagome cruelly dragged her out of her nice warm bed.

"Come on, Ginny. DDR day!" Ginny groaned and sat up. _That's right… Today's the tournament. After today, I'll probably never see Draco again. And we'll certainly never be friends again._ That thought was enough to make Ginny want to crawl back into bed and never leave, but Kagome was persistent in her efforts, and dragged her best friend onto her feet and into the common room.

"Kagome…" Ginny protested as she was pushed over to the DDR machine.

"Now, you run a few practice songs while I fetch your brekkers!" Ginny gave a resigned sigh as her overly-hyper roommate bounced out of the room. Slowly stepping onto the left pad, she pressed the 'start' button.

* * *

Blaise awoke to find Draco already up and sitting in bed with his head in his hands. "Mentally preparing for the tournament, huh? You ready?" Draco looked up, his eyes strangely empty and his face blank.

"I was born ready, Blaise."

"Well, a little extra practice never hurt. Do you want to play a few songs with me?" In response, Draco dropped his head back into his hands. "It will help the time pass, if nothing else. We should probably head to the inter-house challenge room around 12:30." Draco sighed, and got out of bed. _Ginny will hate me after today. No matter what. No matter who wins. Why can't I just accept that and move on?_ Taking a deep breath, he strode determinedly out of the room, Blaise following close behind.

* * *

Neither Ginny nor Draco was sure where the time had gone, but before either knew it, it was 12:30 and the long anticipated DDR tournament was about to begin. Ginny entered the inter-house challenge room to find a good deal of Gryffindors and a few bored-looking Slytherins standing around the room. Her heart skipped a beat or two as she caught sight of Draco, leaning nonchalantly against the DDR machine. When he noticed her entrance, his quicksilver eyes flicked up to meet hers. Her chest constricted, and she almost forgot to breathe for a moment, but just as quickly, they flitted away again.

"And our second contestant has arrived! Ginny, Draco, will you please step up to your respective footpads?" Dane, as the one with the most DDR tournament experience, had been elected referee. Actually, he was the only one with any DDR tournament experience, and he had declared himself referee. Ginny's feet felt like lead as she moved through the crowd and onto the left-side dance pad. Draco didn't meet her eyes as he stepped up to his own pad.

"Thank you, contestants! Now: The rules!" Dane importantly cleared his throat. "You will both play three songs. The first will be chosen by Ginny, the second by Draco, and the third will be randomly selected by the DDR machine. Your chosen songs can be any you want, provided that they are on heavy or oni mode. Your number score for each song will be written down, and added up at the end. The winner, of course, will be the one with the highest score." Dane gave a faintly menacing smile as he continued. "One final rule: If you should fail a song, the punishment is automatic loss of the tournament. Now, shake hands, and let the games begin!"

Ginny turned to Draco. He smiled and held out a hand. "Good luck, Red." She took his hand and smiled back, her nervousness for that one moment forgotten.

"Thanks. Good luck to you too, Draco."

"Ginny, pick your song." Dane called out. She gave one last squeeze to Draco's hand, and then turned to the screen. Flipping rapidly through the songs, she made her choice and stopped, the curser hovering over a song entitled 'Butterfly'. Ginny quickly switched over to the harder Oni mode, with Draco following her lead. In a few seconds, a Japanese techno tune filled the room, and a women's voice began singing out the lyrics.

_Ai-iyai-iyai  
Ai-iyai-iyai  
A-a-aiyai-iyai  
Where's my samurai?_

The steps began scrolling across the screen,

_I've been searching for a man,  
All across Japan,  
Just to find,  
To find my samurai.  
Someone who is strong,  
But still a little shy,  
Yes I need,  
I need my samurai._

Ginny's breath grew short, but through nervousness, not exhaustion. She half-hoped that Draco would catch the lyrics of the song and get the hint she was sending him, and half prayed that he would remain oblivious.

_Ai-ai-ai, I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue make the colors in the sky.  
Ai-ai-ai, I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue make the colors in the sky._

_Did she choose this song on purpose…?_ Draco wondered. _I know it's not her best song, so… No. Not for the lyrics. Damn imagination! She's not trying to tell me anything!_

_I've been searching in the woods,  
And high upon the hills,  
Just to find  
To find my samurai.  
Someone who won't regret  
To keep me in his net  
Yes I need,  
I need my samurai._

_Full combo so far… But Draco has one too! DAMN. Why did I have to risk everything on the unlikely chance that he listens to DDR song lyrics?_

_Ai-ai-ai, I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue make the colors in the sky.  
Ai-ai-ai, I'm your little butterfly  
Green, black and blue make the colors in the sky._

The song ended, and the scores flashed onto the screen – both 'A's, both full combos. But Ginny was just a few points ahead, havingstepped out more perfectsthan the spiky-haired Slytherin.

"Well done Ginny, winner of the first round!" Dane announced to the cheering Gryffindors. Most of the Slytherins in the room sneered and slunk out, not willing to see the hero of Slytherin house brought down by some muggle-lover. "Draco, please select your song." Ginny bit her lip as she watched Draco's face out of the corner of her eye. She was searching for some small recognition of her sign to him. But Draco's impassive face showed no signs of anything, and Ginny dropped her gaze to the dance pad beneath her black stocking feet.

_I have to pick the perfect song to let her know… I hope she gets the hint! I wonder… No. She did not choose butterfly for the lyrics. I must not get my hopes up…_ His hand hesitated for a second, and then he picked his song. 'Speed Over Beethoven', the first song he'd ever played, so long ago.

_Into the night  
You make me cry  
I need your love  
To save my life_

Ginny frowned faintly. Draco almost never picked songs this easy. She'd been sure he would pick the hardest song he could in the hope that she couldn't keep up. Maybe he didn't pick it for its difficulty…

_I need you while  
My piano gently weeps  
Listen to Beethoven_

Half of Draco's brain concentrated entirely on the difficult backwards gallop steps in the song. The other half was in a state of complete disarray. _If Ginny sent that last song as a message, this is my answer… And if she didn't…_

_The melody  
Will set you free  
You need my love  
Deep in your mind_

_CRAP!_ Ginny's mind screamed the word as her foot fell on the left arrow a fraction of a second too late. The Gryffindors in the audience began to mutter worriedly as her full combo broke. Ginny barely even heard. Every brain cell not focused on DDR was entirely too conscious of Draco's nearness. Not to mention his still perfect combo.

_I need you while  
My piano gently weeps  
Music gonna save your life_

As the last note ended, Ginny shot a glance at Draco. His eyes met hers, and they both quickly looked away. The round two scores came up on screen: An 'A' for Ginny, and an almost unheard of 'AA' for Draco.

"After round two, in the lead: Draco!" Dane announced loudly, despite the fact that everyone had already noticed. _FOCUS, Ginny!_ Her mind screamed at her. _Don't forget what happens if you lose. Friends or not, whether I like him or not, there is no way I'm losing!_ Her hands clenched into fists and a new determination filled her eyes. The change did not go unnoticed by Draco, and he permitted himself a small smile. _That's my Red. Wait, what? Did I just-_

"Are the contestants ready for the final, and random, round?" Dane's voice broke into Draco's thoughts. Voicelessly, Ginny and Draco nodded. Dane stepped up and hit the random button. Everyone waited with baited breath as the machine selected the deciding song: 'Can't Stop Fallin' in Love (Speed Mix)'. The word **ready** flashed onto the screen, and the familiar opening notes blasted into the room.

_My life  
Meant nothing to me  
Than a guy like you  
Came along_

Draco and Ginny's feet flashed across the pad, seeming almost to blur with speed.

_Everything  
Is moving so fast  
I gotta get my feet  
On the ground_

Ginny's mind was a haze of anxiety and fear of failing, but her body moved like a well-oiled machine, hitting each and every note with either a great, or, more often, a perfect. But Draco was doing just as well…

_Unhappy days are over  
'Cause I can  
Always be with you_

Draco's mind was a blank. He could think nothing beyond the next arrow. But deep in his mind, an annoying and independent little voice had something to say.

_Lying in your arms  
Day by day  
Makes me feel  
Ohhh… So brand new_

_Ihave to win, I have to win, I have to win…_I The words repeated and echoed in Ginny's thoughts like a broken record.

_Can't stop fallin' in love  
Tell me you will be true (forever baby)  
I just can't stop dreaming of you  
Every day (every way)_

_You fool!_ Draco's inner voice had at last broken free of the restraints he'd placed on it. _IF you win, she'll lose all her fricken' dignity! She'll never, ever forgive you for making her run through the school naked_. The little voice had said what it wanted, and Draco's determination wavered.

_Say you love me, baby  
Say you will always be mine  
You'll never break my heart_

_Damn it!_ Ginny's thoughts were becoming wild, and her breath was straining harshly at her lungs. _There's no way I can win unless Draco makes a horrid mistake. He's way too good of a player for that… I'm never going to live this down._

_I just can't stop fallin' in love  
Baby, you became  
Makin' love with you  
Is all I wanna do (wanna do)_

_Well, what am I supposed to do?_ A frantic Draco thought. His inner voice responded immediately. _Mess up. On purpose._ Draco's eyes widened as the revelation hit him. If he tripped, his score would drop… he'd fail the song. And failure meant automatic loss…

_Can't stop fallin' in love  
Give me your heart and soul  
Stay with me this time  
And we'll make history (you and me)_

The final stretch of steps came hard and fast. Ginny's full concentration focused on the screen as her feet pounded out the rhythm. But all her concentration broke as Draco fell. His foot slipped when he made a misstep on a side arrow, and he hit the pad. Hard. Before anyone had time to react, his dance bar dropped to empty. The song ended. Silence fell heavy on the inter-house challenge room.

Draco stared straight ahead. _I did it... I lost. Ginny won._ A faint smile flickered at the corners of his mouth. The scores flashed on to the screen: an 'A' and an 'F'. The Gryffindors erupted into enthusiastic cheers. Ginny stared at the screen in bewilderment. _I… I won? But… How? What?_ She snapped out of her thoughts as Dane grabbed her hand and thrust it into the air.

"The winner: Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor House!" Her classmates applauded and immediately fell to making plans for a celebration party that night. Draco, slumped onto the pad, seemed entirely forgotten by everyone. Forgotten by everyone but Blaise, that is.

"Draco…" Blaise reached out a hand to touch his friend's shoulder as everyone else filed out of the room, chatting excitedly about the party. But another hand grabbed his and stopped it. Blaise turned and saw Kagome shaking her head at him.

"Come on, Blaise. Let's leave Gin and Draco alone." She turned and dragged the protesting Slytherin from the room. Ginny and Draco were indeed left alone. She turned her wide brown eyes towards him.

"Draco… I…" He turned and cut her off.

"Congrats, you won. Now… I believe that I have to run through the hallsadvertising my love for you, and then proceed to ask you out in front of everybody?" Ginny haltingly nodded. Draco smiled slightly. "Well, I'd better get started then." He stood, and stepped out into the hall. After clearing his throat, he proclaimed: "I'm in love with Ginny Weasley!" The few students loitering in the hall began to giggle as Draco continued down the passage. Ginny gaped after him, stunned and speechless. She'd expected to feel at least a glimmer of satisfaction, even if they had become friends, but instead the win just felt hollow.

* * *

At dinner that night, Ginny was surrounded by laughter and joy at the Gryffindor table. Everyone showered her with praise and congratulations on her victory. She wasn't really paying attention, though. There was something fishy about Draco's fall… It had been nagging at her mind all afternoon, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Finally, during dessert, the thought arrived. _Draco tripped on purpose!_ Ginny's eyes widened as it hit her. He had never so much as stumbled in all their practice together. And then to fall, during the most important round of his life…

"Of course…" Her eyes widened even further as full realization hit her. He'd _wanted_ her to win! By placing his own honor on the line, he'd spared her an absolutely humiliating defeat… Her thoughts were interrupted by the clear sound of a knife tapping the side of a water goblet. Ginny glanced up to find Draco, standing up at his place in the Slytherin table.

"Everyone," his silky voice rang out in the suddenly silent Hall. "May I have your attention please…" The rest of what he was going to say was cut off as Ginny leaped from her seat, vaulted over the table, dashed over to him, and bodily dragged him into the Entry Hall. "Ginny, what…" She leaned in and kissed him, stopping his words for the second time in as many minutes. When she broke away, he stared at her, totally befuddled. She looked frightened for a moment, as if expecting him to recoil from her, but soon regained her fire.

"You fell on purpose, didn't you? So I wouldn't lose." She accused him. A faint blush rose onto his pale face.

"I didn't want you to have to face the…consequences of losing," he said quietly. She smiled up at him. "And why'd you stop me fulfilling my half of the bet?" It was Ginny's turn to blush.

"I remember nothing about you asking me out publicly!" She thrust her chin out and stared into his eyes defiantly, daring him to challenge her. A smile crept slowly across Draco's face.

"But there was definitely something in the bet about me asking you out…" He gently pulled her into his arms and hugged her. "Ginny, will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" She was struck speechless. This wasn't exactly what she'd expected. But she couldn't really say that she minded it…

"Draco. I would love to." Draco leaned in to kiss her again, but she stopped him. "I could have beat you, you know." Draco laughed.

"I'll take you down any day of the week, Red. Come on, you know I would have won anyway!" She opened her mouth to protest, but Draco stopped whatever she was going to say by gently letting his lips meet hers. "You know… I never got to finish my dessert…" Ginny couldn't help but laugh as she took his hand.

"Well, let's go finish, then. You interrupted mine with that untimely announcement." Hand-in-hand, the two ex-enemies walked back into the great hall, much to the complete shock of its inhabitants. Everyone except for Blaise and Kagome, whose eyes met across the room with a smile. Neither would ever admit it, but both had seen it coming all along.

* * *

A/N: HA HA! So maybe some of you guessed the outcome. But I bet no one saw Draco letting her win. Huh? Huh? Yeah, THAT'S right. Anyway, you may think that's the end… But it's not. So continue on to the last chapter: CHAPTER 10! 


	10. When Alls Said and Done

A/N from ZiBl: Holy fricken A! It's actually FINISHED. I seriously had my doubts some days. Well, I more than upheld my end of this bargain: I finished writing before Christmas! Now if Samwise could just stop getting grounded long enough to edit and upload, I think we're fine.

A/N from samwise: hahahahaa…..didn't take forever to edit….but it's here! And it's done and beauteous! It may be almost February, but at least we got it done before spring…right? Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

Dancing With the Dragon  
By Samwise-Dragoneyes and ZiBl, two insane idiots  
Chapter 10: When All's Said and Done

* * *

June mornings always seem to dawn bright and sunny, and the morning of Hogwarts' graduation was no exception. Classes released at midday, and everyone except for the happy seventh years changed into their best robes. At two o' clock, the students meandered outside to where Dumbledore had set up a good deal of chairs in a giant half-circle around a stage. The seventh years, wearing their Hogwarts robes for the last time, sat in the very front middle. Parents and family friends had been apparating, flying, and port-keying in all morning, and everyone invited was at long last present. Dumbledore quickly strode to the center stage podium and cleared his throat. The crowd, which had burst into enthusiastic cheering at his entrance, settled down eventually. That is, all except for the Weasley twins, who were standing on their chairs and madly cheering for their 'ickle Ronnikins'.

"Attention, please!" Dumbledore called out with a twinkle in his eye. The twins reluctantly settled down after one final yell. "Thank you. Now, we all know why we're gathered here today, I should hope. But for those as absent-minded as myself, I shall say a reminder. We're here to honor these fine students, who are now ready to enter the world at large. I know everyone is looking forward to the splendid feast at the end of the ceremony-" He was here interrupted by more cheers from the Weasley twins. Smiling, Dumbledore raised his voice over theirs. "So we shall try to keep this short and sweet. First, may I present this year's Valedictorian and Salutatorian: Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy? Please step forward." The crowd burst into applause once more as the two students stepped onto the stage to receive their awards, and to each make a short speech. Hermione practically bounced up to the podium. To everyone's surprise, she actually kept her speech short.

"I'd just like to say, to everyone, Thank you. To mum and dad, who always pushed me to do my very best. To my boyfriend Ron, and my best friend Harry, who always kept everything entertaining. Sometimes even a little bit too entertaining. To all the teachers, who led me to excellence. And especially to Dumbledore, the best Headmaster anyone could ask for. Thank you, everyone." She made her way back to her seat amidst cheers.

"Thank you, Ms. Granger, I'm flattered. Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore smiled as the pale boy stepped up to the podium. A hush fell over the audience. Nobody was sure what to expect out of the ex-Ice Prince of Slytherin. Draco purposefully cleared his throat, and began.

"If I were standing before you one year ago, this speech would most likely consist of nothing more than how glad I would be to get out of here. But a good deal about me changed since then, all thanks to one person. Many people here deserve gratitude: Teachers, family, friends. But for me, no one deserves thanks and gratitude as much as Ginny Weasley. Ginny, thank you for changing my life." He calmly walked back to his seat as first one person, then another, began to applaud. The Weasley twins once more leaped onto their seats and began cheering, only stopping when Mrs. Weasley threatened to curse their ears off. They settled back down after one last yell of "Yeah, Ginny!"

"Thank you for that moving speech, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said kindly, smiling at Draco, then at the furiously blushing Ginny. "Now, I believe each class head has a few words to say to their students." The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur. Once the house heads said their speeches, Dumbledore read off the names of each graduating student. As each name was called, the student would troop onto stage to receive their Wizarding diploma, along with a handshake from the headmaster and their house head. Finally, with all the diplomas delivered to their respective owners, Dumbledore once more took the podium. "Well, what are you all sitting around here waiting for? There's a rather excellent feast over there that is getting colder by the second."

All assembled burst into loud shouts of delight as mass pandemonium ensued. In all the chaos, Draco felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see a flushed Ginny Weasley, eyes sparkling. Smiling, he leaned down and kissed her.

"Draco, you... Did you have to include me in your speech?" she asked crossly.

"I only spoke the truth up there, Gin. By the way, you look magnificent today. Everyday, really. Just…extra special today." Ginny blushed again, and defensively crossed her arms across her chest. Hastily, she changed the subject.

"You're all ready for the ball tonight, right?" The seventh year ball was a grand affair, as only seventh years and their dates were allowed to attend. The Great Hall would be turned into a Grand Ballroom, complete with a marble floor and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Draco had, of course, invited Ginny to be his date.

"I was born ready for fancy affairs." He replied to her inquiry loftily. "I am, after all, a Malfoy." Ginny promptly ruined his haughty expression by tickling him.

"Hey, Draco!" Both of them turned at the call, to find Blaise striding up, looking as buoyant as ever.

"Why, hello Blaise. Congratulations on graduating. There were times when I was quite sure you'd never make it." Draco flashed his best friend a hint of his smirk.

"Silence, Dragon-boy. Not all of us can be salutatorians." Shooting a mock-disdainful glare at the pale boy, he turned to Ginny. "Umm… Is Kagome around anywhere?"

"Yeah, right behind you. What's up, Blaise?" Blaise jumped and turned around, startled. Kagome stood behind him with a wry grin on her face.

"Well, I uh… Recently noticed that I was absolutely partnerless for the ball. Would you care to come with me?" Blaise asked, blushing slightly. Ginny merely raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the question; Kagome, however, turned beet red an started stuttering.

"Uh… Er… That is…"

"She'd love to." Ginny quickly rescued her best friend, knowing that Kagome had a major crush on the heartthrob Slytherin. Her and half the school…

"Great! Let's go get cake." Blaise grabbed Kagome's hand and went to find the dessert table. She cast one last half-desperate, half-thankful glance at Ginny, who smirked and waved.

"I take it she likes him?" Draco asked. Ginny laughed.

"About as much as I like you."

"Yikes. That much, huh?"

"Mmhmm. And I take it Blaise likes her?"

"About as much as I like you." Ginny grinned.

"Draco!" He turned with a smile as his mother's familiar voice called him. Since Lucius's arrest, she seemed so much happier. But Draco's smile froze when he laid eyes on the somehow familiar figure at her side: A teenage boy with medium length blond hair and laughing light blue eyes.

"Orion…" Draco whispered the name. The next second, the two reunited brothers were laughing and hugging each other. "How did… But I thought… What?"

"Hiya Draco." Orion's voice sounded almost exactly as Draco remembered it, only deeper and more grown up.

"I thought you two would be happy to see each other." Narcissa's voice radiated joy at her sons' reunion.

"But mom, I thought Lucius had Orion killed."

"Where in the hell did you get that idea?" Orion asked, shocked. He wheeled on his mother. "You and dad always said in your letters that Draco knew exactly where I was! And here he thought I was dead? And DAD killed me?"

"I overheard Mom and him talking once. He said that if I didn't shape up, he'd do the same thing to me that he did to Orion. I always thought you were murdered, but that made me think it was him…" Draco turned accusingly to Narcissa. "And you knew I thought he was dead!" She shifted uncomfortably.

"I am so sorry, Draco. But Lucius wanted you to think that. He wanted to make you immune to emotional pain. He hoped to crush all your emotion in one swift blow. I dared not tell you as long as he was still around."

"Well…" Draco struggled to find something to say. Finally, he turned to his younger brother. "Where have you been for the past seven years?"

"Boarding school in America. Dad said that if I was there I couldn't 'Besmirch the family name.' But mom says I can finish my education at Hogwarts. And are you ever going to introduce me to your friend there?" Draco glanced at Ginny, to find her looking oddly at Orion.

"You… I had a dream with you in it once." She sounded puzzled. Draco's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had forgotten about the night he'd caught Ginny sleepwalking and she had described Orion to him.

"My American headmaster had a knack for dream walking. She gave me special lessons in it because she said I showed great talent at it." Orion sounded smug. "I used it to keep track of Draco."

"So why were you in my dream?" asked Ginny.

"You appeared so often in Draco's dreams that I got curious."

"Oh, really?" Ginny grinned at the flustered Draco, who quickly changed the subject.

"Come on, let's go get some food. I hear they have cake at the dessert table!"

"I'll go with that!" Orion laughed and left, with Narcissa following. Draco started after them, but Ginny called his name and stopped him.

"So even before we became friends, you dreamed about me, huh?"

"Whether I'd admit it to myself or not, I liked you since you helped me cut my hair on the train." He grinned as he made the confession.

"So it wasn't just me feeling like that, then?"

"I guess not. Come on; let's go get dessert before Blaise and Orion eat it all." Ginny laughed.

"Hey, I'll race you!" Without waiting for an answer, she dashed off.

"No fair!" Yelled Draco as he started after her, his liquid-silver eyes full of absolute happiness.

"All's fair in love and war!" She called as she took a glance back at him, her smile impish and her chocolate brown eyes merry.

From the shade of a nearby tree, a pair of lazy blue eyes watched the happy couple gallivant across the lawn. "Ah well." Sighed the newly graduated Dane. "Time to go get me some lovin'." And with that, he wandered off to go find a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

THE END

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A/N from ZiBl: ah, yes. Love. DDR. Cake. All the great joys in life. I'm so glad you all took the time to read this story. It took a few years, and many late nights and sore wrists, to actually finish this. I hope you all enjoy. Thank you, to ALL our readers. We love you. 3

A/N from Samwise: Ah, love. 'Tis…um…lovely. And such. But yes, we had great fun writing this, despite the countless tongue-lashings I received for not editing quickly enough. I love love love love you all! Even if you hated it, you still read it. And that actually means something.


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